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persuasive essay mentor text high school

Mentor Texts for Teaching Argument Writing

admin 01.29.18 Booklists Reading Writing

As a follow-up to our November 2017 #NCTEchat, Using Mentor Texts , we asked our social media community to share some of their favorite mentor texts with us. In the first part of this series, we’ve compiled educators’ favorite mentor texts for teaching argument writing. To see the original messages this list is based on, click here .

Did we miss one? Please let us know on Twitter!

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Should There Be Zoos?: A Persuasive Text by Tony Stead with Judy Ballester and her fourth-grade class Examines the opposing viewpoints of a fourth-grade class on whether zoos are helpful or harmful to animals; written in persuasive language.

Hey, Little Ant by Phillip M. and  Hannah Hoose , illustrated by Debbie Tilley What would you do if the ant you were about to step on looked up and started talking? Would you stop and listen?

A Pig Parade Is a Terrible Idea by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes Could anything possibly be more fun than a pig parade!? You wouldn’t think so. But you’d be wrong. A pig parade is a terrible idea.

I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff, illustrated by David Catrow Alex just has to convince his mom to let him have an iguana, so he puts his arguments in writing.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Have I Got a Book for You! by Mélanie Watt Mr. Al Foxword is one persistent salesman! He will do just about anything to sell you this book. Al tries every trick of the trade.

Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett, illustrated by Ron Barrett This well-loved book by Judi and Ron Barrett shows the very youngest why animals’ clothing is perfect . . . just as it is.

Stella Writes an Opinion by Janiel Wagstaff, illustrated by Dana Regan Meet Stella. She has lots of opinions. When Ms. M. tells the class they get to write an opinion, Stella gets excited. But how will she choose what to write about?

I Wanna New Room by Karen Kaufman Orloff, illustrated by David Catrow Writing letters to his mom convinced her to let him get his pet iguana, so Alex puts pencil to paper again, this time determined to get his own room.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel In this celebration of observation, curiosity, and imagination, Brendan Wenzel shows us the many views of one cat and the ways perspective shapes what we see. When you see a cat, what do you see?

Dear Mr. Blueberry by Simon James It’s vacation time, so Emily has to write to her teacher for help when she discovers a blue whale living in her pond. Mr. Blueberry answers that she must be mistaken, because whales live in the ocean, not in ponds.

Red Is Best by Kathy Stinson Young Kelly’s mom doesn’t understand about red. Sure, the brown mittens are warmer, but the red mitts make better snowballs. No doubt about it, red is best.

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers Poor Duncan just wants to color. But when he opens his box of crayons, he finds only letters, all saying the same thing: We quit! The supporting details are great to get students to think and write about the why instead of just writing a list of demands.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

One Word from Sophia by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail Sophia tries varied techniques to get the giraffe she wants more than anything in this playfully illustrated story about the nuances of negotiation.

She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton, illustrated by Alexandra Boiger In this book, Chelsea Clinton celebrates thirteen American women who helped shape our country through their tenacity, sometimes through speaking out, sometimes by staying seated, sometimes by captivating an audience.

Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving  by Laurie Halse Anderson, illustrated by Matt Faulkner Way back when “skirts were long and hats were tall,” Americans were forgetting Thanksgiving, and nobody seemed to care! Thankfully, Sarah Hale appeared.

Earrings by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Nola Langner Malone She wants them. She needs them. She loves them.  Earrings!  What won’t a girl do to finally get her ears pierced?

Upper Grades

persuasive essay mentor text high school

This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women , edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman Based on the NPR series of the same name,  This I Believe  features eighty Americans―from the famous to the unknown―completing the thought that the book’s title begins.

Everything’s an Argument by Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz This bestselling text shows students how to analyze all kinds of arguments—not just essays and editorials, but clothes, cars, ads, and website designs—and then how to use what they learn to write their own effective arguments. Making a Visual Argument: Claire Ironside’s “Apples to Oranges” was specifically mentioned.

Dear Mr. President: Letters to the Oval Office from the Files of the National Archives by Dwight Young and Brian Williams Drawn from the extensive holdings of the National Archives, these carefully chosen letters remind us that ours is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” which entitles us to make our views known to our leaders.

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela The autobiography of Nelson Mandela, one of the great moral and political leaders of our time.

Good speeches are exemplars of argument, evidence, genre blending, word choice, and more.

“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” by Patrick Henry, delivered March 23, 1775, St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia

“ Ain’t I a Woman? ” by Sojourner Truth, delivered 1851, Women’s Convention, Akron, Ohio

“ The Destructive Male ” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, delivered 1868, Women’s Suffrage Convention, Washington, D.C.

“ Toward a More Perfect Union ” by Barack Obama, delivered March 18, 2008, The Constitution Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Any speech by Barack Obama, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., or Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Newsela Current events stories tailor-made for classroom use. Indexed by broad theme, stories are student-friendly and can be accessed in different formats by reading level.

The New York Times Upfront Magazine by Scholastic Upfront  gets teens talking about today’s most important issues with current events for grades 9–12.

“ The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me ” by Sherman Alexie, Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1998

Atticus Finch’s closing argument in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Declaration of Independence

Abigail Adams’s letters to John Adams

Barack Obama’s Town Hall response where he compares gun control to auto safety

Book descriptions are taken from the Goodreads website.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

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persuasive essay mentor text high school

Inform, Inspire, Instruct: Essays as Mentor Texts in High School

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Kimberly Campbell

“We are really quite concerned,” stressed the school counselor as she handed me the essay a student of mine had submitted for the state writing test. I smiled and even chuckled aloud at the student's attempt at satire, which was clearly influenced by Jonathan Swift’s essay “A Modest Proposal.” He both hit satire and, based on the counselor’s concern and the state readers who had red-flagged the essay, missed the satire mark. Although I agreed that the student was perhaps more graphic than needed in his essay “Why I Don’t Own a Dog,” I was heartened to know the essays we had read and analyzed in class had inspired him. When I met with him to discuss his essay, I shared my respect for his efforts, but also raised questions about some of his writing decisions. He concluded our conference by noting, “The problem with writing an essay based on satire is that if your reader doesn’t get the satire, they will think you are disturbed.” I suspect Jonathan Swift would concur.

Although it is not my goal to have students write essays that disturb readers, it is my goal to introduce students to essays that will push their thinking—about content and the craft of essays. I want students to discover that essays can be humorous, persuasive, informative, challenging, controversial, touching, and stylistically original. I want essays to serve as mentor texts for students so that they are inspired to do what Edwidge Danticat, editor of the 2011 edition in The Best American Essays series, describes about the essays she selected for inclusion, calling them “stories we dare tell others about ourselves.” She goes on to note that these stories “inform, instruct, and inspire. They might even entertain, but they can also strip bare, reducing (or expanding) the essence of everything we are to words."

Although I am a fan of teaching essays, I am also well aware of the challenge of finding essays to use with students that capture the “stripped-bare” essence Danticat describes.

Swift’s essay is one that has captured students’ interest—although I now share the story of my former student’s wisdom regarding the challenge of satire. I have listed here some of the essays, collections, and resources I turn to in support of essay exploration.

My “go-to” essay anthology is The Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition .  I appreciate the weave of classic essays, including Jonathan Swift’s “ A Modest Proposal ,” E.B. White’s “ Once More to the Lake ,” Martin Luther King Jr.'s “ I Have a Dream ,” and Virginia Woolf’s “ The Death of a Moth ” with more contemporary essays, such as Garrison Keillor’s “ A Sunday at the State Fair ,” Nora Ephron’s “ The Six Stages of E-mail ,” and Geeta Kothari’s “ If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I? ” 

Although I am not a fan of categorizing essays by type, The Sampler does just that. "Humor and Satire" is one of the thematic categories. Swift is included, as is one of the authors most appreciated by the secondary students with whom I have worked: Dave Barry. Dave Barry writes nonfiction, in keeping with Common Core standards. But he writes humorous nonfiction, which reflects research findings on boys and literacy that calls for the inclusion of more humor in our literature curriculum. I have had great success using Dave Barry’s essay “ Guys vs. Men ” to explore issues about gender, culture, and language as well as writing craft: the use of definitions, analogies, the overall structure of an essay, and examples of humor and/or satire. I will admit to owning a number of Dave Barry’s essay collections, including his most recent, You Can Date Boys When You’re Forty: Dave Barry on Parenting and Other Topics He Knows Very Little About . I have found that public libraries appreciate the value of Dave Barry, so you could borrow his books and make a classroom set of an essay or two, in full compliance with copyright law.

Two additional library resources for essays are The Best American Essay series, edited by guest editors each year, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading series, edited by Dave Eggars. I note that Eggars works with high school students to scour publications looking for the “best” stories, essays, and comics to include in the annual publication. The students read, discuss, and present their case for inclusion, looking for writing that “loudly and eloquently” speaks about the year in which it was crafted (Eggars 2011, xii). One of my favorite essays in the series is “ Roger Ebert: The Essential Man ,” which originally appeared in Esquire magazine.

Girls also value humor in writing. They enjoy Dave Barry, but they also are fans of Sloane Crosley . Her essay “Le Paris” made the cut for The Best American Nonrequired Reading (2011). The opening line reads, “It’s incredibly difficult to get yourself banished from a city.” If you want more, Crosley has two essay collections, How Did You Get This Number and I Was Told There’d Be Cake . I recommend both.

In addition to the library, I rely on online resources. It’s been my experience that students appreciate seeing writing that is not in a book. For example, Leonard Pitts writes a column for the Miami Herald , which can be found online.  He is skilled at examining recent events for the lessons we can learn. I appreciate how his writing style makes me feel like he is sitting at my dining room table talking. This past July he took on the issue of taking “selfies” in inappropriate places.  I am confident students will have a response to Pitt’s essay in which he notes, ”we learn that it has become quite the modern ‘thing,’ people clowning, sticking out their tongues, lifting thumbs up, grinning like loons in somber and sacred places."  The New Yorker   is another great resource for essays that deal with current events. I have also had good success with essays from Entertainment Weekly , particularly Dalton Ross’s work . Stephen King used to write a column for this magazine, and I have had great success using his essays, particularly “ Stephen King’s Guide to Movie Snacks ." It is a great example of expository writing and humor. 

Providing students with essays written by students is also important modeling of the value of essays.  The Norton Sampler, noted above, has four student essays. I have also used Teen Ink . The This I Believe website is a great resource for student-authored essays (as well as essays from a variety of authors on a myriad of themes). This site also publishes student writing. I try to make it a habit to ask students for permission to make a copy of the essays they write in my classroom to share as mentor texts for their peers. Sometimes we take the next step and create a literary magazine of student writing.

James Moffett in Teaching the Universe of Discourse describes essays as “a candid blend of personal and universal.” It’s my hope that students will know this as readers and writers of essays.

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Kimberly Campbell is an endowed professor and department chair at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of Less is More: Teaching Literature with Short Texts, Grades 6-12.

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Writing curriculum

Argumentative Writing Unit

Writing prompts, lesson plans, webinars, mentor texts and a culminating contest, all to inspire your students to tell us what matters to them.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

By The Learning Network

Unit Overview

On our site, we’ve been offering teenagers ways to tell the world what they think for over 20 years. Our student writing prompt forums encourage them to weigh in on current events and issues daily, while our contests have offered an annual outlet since 2014 for formalizing those opinions into evidence-based essays.

In this unit, we’re bringing together all the resources we’ve developed along the way to help students figure out what they want to say, and how to say it effectively.

Here is what this unit offers, but we would love to hear from both teachers and students if there is more we could include. Let us know in the comments, or by writing to [email protected].

Start With Our Prompts for Argumentative Writing

How young is too young to use social media? Should students get mental health days off from school? Is $1 billion too much money for any one person to have?

These are the kinds of questions we ask every day on our site. In 2017 we published a list of 401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing categorized to provoke thinking on aspects of contemporary life from social media to sports, politics, gender issues and school. In 2021, we followed it up with 300 Questions and Images to Inspire Argument Writing , which catalogs all our argument-focused Student Opinion prompts since then, plus our more accessible Picture Prompts.

Teachers tell us their students love looking at these lists, both to inspire their own writing and to find links to reliable sources about the issues that intrigue them. In fact, every year we get many contest submissions that grow directly out of these questions. Several, like this one , have even gone on to win.

But even if you’re not participating in our contest, you might use these prompts to invite the kind of casual, low-stakes writing that can help your students build skills — in developing their voices, making claims and backing them up with solid reasoning and evidence.

And, if your students respond to our most recent prompts by posting comments on our site, they can also practice making arguments for an authentic audience of fellow students from around the world. Each week we choose our favorites to honor in our Current Events Conversation column .

Find Lesson Plans on Every Aspect of Argument Writing

Over the years, we’ve published quite a few lesson plans to support our annual argument writing contests — so many, in fact, that we finally rounded them all up into one easy list.

In “ 10 Ways to Teach Argument-Writing With The New York Times ,” you’ll find resources for:

Exploring the role of a newspaper opinion section

Understanding the difference between fact and opinion

Analyzing the use of rhetorical strategies like ethos, pathos and logos

Working with claims, evidence and counterarguments

Helping students discover the issues that matter to them

Breaking out of the “echo chamber” when researching hot-button issues

Experimenting with visual argument-making

In 2021, we also developed An Argumentative-Writing Unit for Students Doing Remote Learning that can help teenagers guide their own learning.

Teach and Learn With Mentor Texts

You probably already know that you can find arguments to admire — and “writer’s moves” to emulate — all over the Times Opinion section . But have you thought about using the work of our previous Student Editorial Contest winners as mentor texts too?

Here are ways to use both:

Learn from the Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof’s writing process : One edition of our “Annotated by the Author” Mentor Text series is by Mr. Kristof. See what he has to say about the writing challenges he faced in a recent column and how he did the kinds of things students will have to do, too, from fact-checking to fixing grammar errors to balancing storytelling with making a larger point.

Get to know one writer’s rhetorical style : Many teachers use an “adopt a columnist” method, inviting students to focus on the work of one of the Times Opinion columnists to get to know his or her issues and rhetorical style. In 2019, an English teacher in Connecticut wrote for our site about how he does this exercise, in which his students choose from among columnists at The Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

Use the work of teenage winners to help your students identify “writer’s moves” they can borrow: Teachers have told us there is no better way to prepare students to enter our contest than to have them examine the work of previous winners.

On our current site, you can find the essays of the top winners and the runners-up from 2017-2021 . Invite your students to read one and answer the questions we pose in all our Mentor Texts columns : “What do you notice or admire about this piece? What lessons might it have for your writing?” Then, have them borrow one or more of this student’s “writer’s moves” and imitate it in their own work.

We have also published two Learning Network books , one that collects 100 of the best student essays from this contest all in one place, categorized by subjects like “Teenage Life Online,” “Gender and Sexuality” and “Sports and Gaming,” and the other a related teacher’s guide to using them in the classroom.

Here is a roundup of ideas from 17 teachers and students for ways to use these “authentic, powerful and unafraid” student essays in several classroom contexts.

Finally, two new entries in our Annotated by the Author series feature student editorial contest winners from 2020 discussing their work and sharing tips: Ananya Udaygiri on “How Animal Crossing Will Save the World” and Abel John on “Collar the Cat!”

Get Practical Tips From Our Related Videos and Webinars

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The video above, “ How to Write an Editorial ,” is only three minutes long, but in it Andy Rosenthal, the former editor of the Times Opinion page, gives students seven great pieces of advice.

Both students and teachers are welcome to watch our popular on-demand 2017 webinar, “ Write to Change the World: Crafting Persuasive Pieces With Help From Nicholas Kristof and the Times Op-Ed Page ,” which includes a wealth of practical tips from Mr. Kristof, as well as from Kabby Hong, a Wisconsin English teacher who works with this contest annually, and his student, Daina Kalnina, whose 2017 essay was one of our top winners that year.

Finally, you can watch our 2021 on-demand webinar, Teaching Argumentative Writing , that focuses on two key steps in the process: finding your argument, and using evidence to support it. You will also get broad overview of how to use our writing prompts and the work of our student winners to help your own students find topics they care about, and craft solid arguments around them. You can also watch an edited version of this webinar below.

Enter Our New Student Open Letter Contest: March 13-April 17, 2024

The culmination of this unit? Our new Open Letter Contest.

An open letter is a published letter of protest or appeal usually addressed to an individual but intended for the general public. Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail , the recent letter signed by over 1,000 tech leaders about the dangers of A.I. and this funny 2020 letter addressed to Harry and Meghan are all examples of this rich tradition.

Just as we did for our long-running Editorial Contest, we invite students to make an argument in 450 words about something that matters to them, and persuade us that we should care, too. But this time, students must address themselves to a specific target audience or recipient, institution or group — one that has the power to make meaningful change.

Whether students choose their parents, teachers, school board members or mayor; a member of Congress; the head of a corporation; or a metonym like “Silicon Valley” or “The Kremlin,” they should ask themselves, What do I care about? Who can make changes, big or small, local or global, to address my issue or problem? What specifically do I want them to understand and do? And how can I write this as an “open letter,” meaningful not just to me and the recipient, but to a general audience?

More information will be published soon. Until then, you can find ideas and inspiration in our related writing unit and via the work of past Editorial winners .

As always, all student work will be read by our staff, volunteers from the Times Opinion section, and/or by educators from around the country. Winners will have their work published on our site and, perhaps, in the print New York Times.

A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing

February 7, 2016

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For seven years, I was a writing teacher.  Yes, I was certified to teach the full spectrum of English language arts—literature, grammar and usage, speech, drama, and so on—but my absolute favorite, the thing I loved doing the most, was teaching students how to write.

Most of the material on this site is directed at all teachers. I look for and put together resources that would appeal to any teacher who teaches any subject. That practice will continue for as long as I keep this up. But over the next year or so, I plan to also share more of what I know about teaching students to write. Although I know many of the people who visit here are not strictly English language arts teachers, my hope is that these posts will provide tons of value to those who are, and to those who teach all subjects, including writing.

So let’s begin with argumentative writing, or persuasive writing, as many of us used to call it. This overview will be most helpful to those who are new to teaching writing, or teachers who have not gotten good results with the approach you have taken up to now. I don’t claim to have the definitive answer on how to do this, but the method I share here worked pretty well for me, and it might do the same for you. If you are an experienced English language arts teacher, you probably already have a system for teaching this skill that you like. Then again, I’m always interested in how other people do the things I can already do; maybe you’re curious like that, too.

Before I start, I should note that what I describe in this post is a fairly formulaic style of essay writing. It’s not exactly the 5-paragraph essay, but it definitely builds on that model. I strongly believe students should be shown how to move past those kinds of structures into a style of writing that’s more natural and fitting to the task and audience, but I also think they should start with something that’s pretty clearly organized.

So here’s how I teach argumentative essay writing.

Step 1: Watch How It’s Done

One of the most effective ways to improve student writing is to show them mentor texts, examples of excellent writing within the genre students are about to attempt themselves. Ideally, this writing would come from real publications and not be fabricated by me in order to embody the form I’m looking for. Although most experts on writing instruction employ some kind of mentor text study, the person I learned it from best was Katie Wood Ray in her book Study Driven (links to the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon ).

Since I want the writing to be high quality and the subject matter to be high interest, I might choose pieces like Jessica Lahey’s Students Who Lose Recess Are the Ones Who Need it Most  and David Bulley’s School Suspensions Don’t Work .

I would have students read these texts, compare them, and find places where the authors used evidence to back up their assertions. I would ask students which author they feel did the best job of influencing the reader, and what suggestions they would make to improve the writing. I would also ask them to notice things like stories, facts and statistics, and other things the authors use to develop their ideas. Later, as students work on their own pieces, I would likely return to these pieces to show students how to execute certain writing moves.

Step 2: Informal Argument, Freestyle

Although many students might need more practice in writing an effective argument, many of them are excellent at arguing in person. To help them make this connection, I would have them do some informal debate on easy, high-interest topics. An activity like This or That (one of the classroom icebreakers I talked about last year) would be perfect here: I read a statement like “Women have the same opportunities in life as men.” Students who agree with the statement move to one side of the room, and those who disagree move to the other side. Then they take turns explaining why they are standing in that position. This ultimately looks a little bit like a debate, as students from either side tend to defend their position to those on the other side.

Every class of students I have ever had, from middle school to college, has loved loved LOVED this activity. It’s so simple, it gets them out of their seats, and for a unit on argument, it’s an easy way to get them thinking about how the art of argument is something they practice all the time.

Step 3: Informal Argument, Not so Freestyle

Once students have argued without the support of any kind of research or text, I would set up a second debate; this time with more structure and more time to research ahead of time. I would pose a different question, supply students with a few articles that would provide ammunition for either side, then give them time to read the articles and find the evidence they need.

Next, we’d have a Philosophical Chairs debate (learn about this in my  discussion strategies post), which is very similar to “This or That,” except students use textual evidence to back up their points, and there are a few more rules. Here they are still doing verbal argument, but the experience should make them more likely to appreciate the value of evidence when trying to persuade.

Before leaving this step, I would have students transfer their thoughts from the discussion they just had into something that looks like the opening paragraph of a written argument: A statement of their point of view, plus three reasons to support that point of view. This lays the groundwork for what’s to come.

Step 4: Introduction of the Performance Assessment

Next I would show students their major assignment, the performance assessment that they will work on for the next few weeks. What does this look like? It’s generally a written prompt that describes the task, plus the rubric I will use to score their final product.

Anytime I give students a major writing assignment, I let them see these documents very early on. In my experience, I’ve found that students appreciate having a clear picture of what’s expected of them when beginning a writing assignment. At this time, I also show them a model of a piece of writing that meets the requirements of the assignment. Unlike the mentor texts we read on day 1, this sample would be something teacher-created (or an excellent student model from a previous year) to fit the parameters of the assignment.

Step 5: Building the Base

Before letting students loose to start working on their essays, I make sure they have a solid plan for writing. I would devote at least one more class period to having students consider their topic for the essay, drafting a thesis statement, and planning the main points of their essay in a graphic organizer.

I would also begin writing my own essay on a different topic. This has been my number one strategy for teaching students how to become better writers. Using a document camera or overhead projector, I start from scratch, thinking out loud and scribbling down my thoughts as they come. When students see how messy the process can be, it becomes less intimidating for them. They begin to understand how to take the thoughts that are stirring around in your head and turn them into something that makes sense in writing.

For some students, this early stage might take a few more days, and that’s fine: I would rather spend more time getting it right at the pre-writing stage than have a student go off willy-nilly, draft a full essay, then realize they need to start over. Meanwhile, students who have their plans in order will be allowed to move on to the next step.

Step 6: Writer’s Workshop

The next seven to ten days would be spent in writer’s workshop, where I would start class with a mini-lesson about a particular aspect of craft. I would show them how to choose credible, relevant evidence, how to skillfully weave evidence into an argument, how to consider the needs of an audience, and how to correctly cite sources. Once each mini-lesson was done, I would then give students the rest of the period to work independently on their writing. During this time, I would move around the room, helping students solve problems and offering feedback on whatever part of the piece they are working on. I would encourage students to share their work with peers and give feedback at all stages of the writing process.

If I wanted to make the unit even more student-centered, I would provide the mini-lessons in written or video format and let students work through them at their own pace, without me teaching them. (To learn more about this approach, read this post on self-paced learning ).

As students begin to complete their essays, the mini-lessons would focus more on matters of style and usage. I almost never bother talking about spelling, punctuation, grammar, or usage until students have a draft that’s pretty close to done. Only then do we start fixing the smaller mistakes.

Step 7: Final Assessment

Finally, the finished essays are handed in for a grade. At this point, I’m pretty familiar with each student’s writing and have given them verbal (and sometimes written) feedback throughout the unit; that’s why I make the writer’s workshop phase last so long. I don’t really want students handing in work until they are pretty sure they’ve met the requirements to the best of their ability. I also don’t necessarily see “final copies” as final; if a student hands in an essay that’s still really lacking in some key areas, I will arrange to have that student revise it and resubmit for a higher grade.

So that’s it. If you haven’t had a lot of success teaching students to write persuasively, and if the approach outlined here is different from what you’ve been doing, give it a try. And let’s keep talking: Use the comments section below to share your techniques or ask questions about the most effective ways to teach argumentative writing.

Want this unit ready-made?

If you’re a writing teacher in grades 7-12 and you’d like a classroom-ready unit like the one described above, including mini-lessons, sample essays, and a library of high-interest online articles to use for gathering evidence, take a look at my Argumentative Writing unit. Just click on the image below and you’ll be taken to a page where you can read more and see a detailed preview of what’s included.

What to Read Next

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Categories: Instruction , Podcast

Tags: English language arts , Grades 6-8 , Grades 9-12 , teaching strategies

58 Comments

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This is useful information. In teaching persuasive speaking/writing I have found Monroe’s Motivated sequence very useful and productive. It is a classic model that immediately gives a solid structure for students.

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Thanks for the recommendation, Bill. I will have to look into that! Here’s a link to more information on Monroe’s Motivated sequence, for anyone who wants to learn more: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/MonroeMotivatedSequence.htm

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What other sites do you recommend for teacher use on providing effective organizational structure in argumentative writing? As a K-12 Curriculum Director, I find that when teachers connect with and understand the organizational structure, they are more effective in their teaching/delivery.

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Hey Jessica, in addition to the steps outlined here, you might want to check out Jenn’s post on graphic organizers . Graphic organizers are a great tool that you can use in any phase of a lesson. Using them as a prewrite can help students visualize the argument and organize their thoughts. There’s a link in that post to the Graphic Organizer Multi-Pack that Jenn has for sale on her Teachers Pay Teachers site, which includes two versions of a graphic organizer you can use specifically for argument organization. Otherwise, if there’s something else you had in mind, let us know and we can help you out. Thanks!

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Dear Jennifer Gonzalez,

You are generous with your gift of lighting the path… I hardly ever write (never before) , but I must today… THANK YOU… THANK YOU….THANK YOU… mostly for reading your great teachings… So your valuable teachings will even be easy to benefit all the smart people facing challenge of having to deal with adhd…

I am not a teacher… but forever a student…someone who studied English as 2nd language, with a science degree & adhd…

You truly are making a difference in our World…

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Thanks so much, Rita! I know Jenn will appreciate this — I’ll be sure to share with her!

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Love it! Its simple and very fruitful . I can feel how dedicated you are! Thanks alot Jen

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Great examples of resources that students would find interesting. I enjoyed reading your article. I’ve bookmarked it for future reference. Thanks!

You’re welcome, Sheryl!

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Students need to be writing all the time about a broad range of topics, but I love the focus here on argumentative writing because if you choose the model writing texts correctly, you can really get the kids engaged in the process and in how they can use this writing in real-world situations!

I agree, Laura. I think an occasional tight focus on one genre can help them grow leaps and bounds in the skills specific to that type of writing. Later, in less structured situations, they can then call on those skills when that kind of thinking is required.

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This is really helpful! I used it today and put the recess article in a Google Doc and had the kids identify anecdotal, statistic, and ‘other’ types of evidence by highlighting them in three different colors. It worked well! Tomorrow we’ll discuss which of the different types of evidence are most convincing and why.

Love that, Shanna! Thanks for sharing that extra layer.

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Greetings Ms. Gonzales. I was wondering if you had any ideas to help students develop the cons/against side of their argument within their writing? Please advise. Thanks.

Hi Michael,

Considering audience and counterarguments are an important part of the argumentative writing process. In the Argumentative Writing unit Jenn includes specific mini-lessons that teach kids how, when and where to include opposing views in their writing. In the meantime, here’s a video that might also be helpful.

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Hi, Thank you very much for sharing your ideas. I want to share also the ideas in the article ‘Already Experts: Showing Students How Much They Know about Writing and Reading Arguments’ by Angela Petit and Edna Soto…they explain a really nice activity to introduce argumentative writing. I have applied it many times and my students not only love it but also display a very clear pattern as the results in the activity are quite similar every time. I hope you like it.

Lorena Perez

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I’d like to thank you you for this excellence resource. It’s a wonderful addition to the informative content that Jennifer has shared.

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What do you use for a prize?

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I looked at the unit, and it looks and sounds great. The description says there are 4 topics. Can you tell me the topics before I purchase? We start argument in 5th grade, and I want to make sure the topics are different from those they’ve done the last 5 years before purchasing. Thanks!

Hi Carrie! If you go to the product page on TPT and open up the preview, you’ll see the four topics on the 4th page in more detail, but here they are: Social Networking in School (should social media sites be blocked in school?), Cell Phones in Class, Junk Food in School, and Single-Sex Education (i.e., genders separated). Does that help?

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I teach 6th grade English in a single gendered (all-girls) class. We just finished an argument piece but I will definitely cycle back your ideas when we revisit argumentation. Thanks for the fabulous resources!

Glad to hear it, Madelyn!

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I’m not a writing teacher and honestly haven’t been taught on how to teach writing. I’m a history teacher. I read this and found it helpful but have questions. First I noticed that amount of time dedicated to the task in terms of days. My questions are how long is a class period? I have my students for about 45 minutes. I also saw you mentioned in the part about self-paced learning that mini-lessons could be written or video format. I love these ideas. Any thoughts on how to do this with almost no technology in the room and low readers to non-readers? I’m trying to figure out how to balance teaching a content class while also teaching the common core skills. Thank you for any consideration to my questions.

Hey Jones, To me, a class period is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour; definitely varies from school to school. As for the question about doing self-paced with very little tech? I think binders with written mini-lessons could work well, as well as a single computer station or tablet hooked up to a class set of videos. Obviously you’d need to be more diligent about rotating students in and out of these stations, but it’s an option at least. You might also give students access to the videos through computers in other locations at school (like the library) and give them passes to watch. The thing about self-paced learning, as you may have seen in the self-paced post , is that if students need extra teacher support (as you might find with low readers or non-readers), they would spend more one-on-one time with the teacher, while the higher-level students would be permitted to move more quickly on their own. Does that help?

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My primary goal for next semester is to increase academic discussion and make connections from discussion to writing, so I love how you launch this unit with lessons like Philosophical Chairs. I am curious, however, what is the benefit of the informal argument before the not-so-informal argument? My students often struggle to listen to one another, so I’m wondering if I should start with the more formal, structured version. Or, am I overthinking the management? Thanks so much for input.

Yikes! So sorry your question slipped through, and we’re just now getting to this, Sarah. The main advantage of having kids first engage in informal debate is that it helps them get into an argumentative mindset and begin to appreciate the value of using research to support their claims. If you’ve purchased the unit, you can read more about this in the Overview.

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My 6th graders are progressing through their argumentative essay. I’m providing mini lessons along the way that target where most students are in their essay. Your suggestions will be used. I’ve chosen to keep most writing in class and was happy to read that you scheduled a lot of class time for the writing. Students need to feel comfortable knowing that writing is a craft and needs to evolve over time. I think more will get done in class and it is especially important for the struggling writers to have peers and the teacher around while they write. Something that I had students do that they liked was to have them sit in like-topic groups to create a shared document where they curated information that MIGHT be helpful along the way. By the end of the essay, all will use a fantastic add-on called GradeProof which helps to eliminate most of the basic and silly errors that 6th graders make.

Debbi! I LOVE the idea of a shared, curated collection of resources! That is absolutely fantastic! Are you using a Google Doc for this? Other curation tools you might consider are Padlet and Elink .

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thanks v much for all this information

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Love this! What do you take as grades in the meantime? Throughout this 2 week stretch?

Ideally, you wouldn’t need to take grades at all, waiting until the final paper is done to give one grade. If your school requires more frequent grades, you could assign small point values for getting the incremental steps done: So in Step 3 (when students have to write a paragraph stating their point of view) you could take points for that. During the writer’s workshop phase, you might give points for completion of a rough draft and participation points for peer review (ideally, they’d get some kind of feedback on the quality of feedback they give to one another). Another option would be to just give a small, holistic grade for each week based on the overall integrity of their work–are they staying on task? Making small improvements to their writing each day? Taking advantage of the resources? If students are working diligently through the process, that should be enough. But again, the assessment (grades) should really come from that final written product, and if everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing during the workshop phase, most students should have pretty good scores on that final product. Does that help?

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Awesome Step 2! Teaching mostly teenagers in Northern Australia I find students’ verbal arguments are much more finely honed than their written work.

To assist with “building the base” I’ve always found sentence starters an essential entry point for struggling students. We have started using the ‘PEARL’ method for analytical and persuasive writing.

If it helps here a free scaffold for the method:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Paragraph-Scaffold-PEEL-to-PEARL-3370676

Thanks again,

Thank you for sharing this additional resource! It’s excellent!

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I’ve been scouring the interwebs looking for some real advice on how I can help my struggling 9th grader write better. I can write. Since it comes naturally for me, I have a hard time breaking it down into such tiny steps that he can begin to feel less overwhelmed. I LOVE the pre-writing ideas here. My son is a fabulous arguer. I need to help him use those powers for the good of his writing skills. Do you have a suggestion on what I else I can be using for my homeschooled son? Or what you may have that could work well for home use?

Hi Melinda,

You might be interested in taking a look at Jenn’s Argumentative Writing unit which she mentions at the end of the post . Hope this helps!

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Mam it would be good if you could post some steps of different writing and some samples as well so it can be useful for the students.

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Hi Aalia! My name is Holly, and I work as a Customer Experience Manager for Cult of Pedagogy. It just so happens that in the near future, Jenn is going to release a narrative writing unit, so keep an eye out for that! As far as samples, the argumentative writing unit has example essays included, and I’m sure the narrative unit will as well. But, to find the examples, you have to purchase the unit from Teachers Pay Teachers.

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I just want to say that this helped me tremendously in teaching argument to 8th Graders this past school year, which is a huge concept on their state testing in April. I felt like they were very prepared, and they really enjoyed the verbal part of it, too! I have already implemented these methods into my unit plan for argument for my 11th grade class this year. Thank you so much for posting all of these things! : )

-Josee` Vaughn

I’m so glad to hear it, Josee!!

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Love your blog! It is one of the best ones.

I am petrified of writing. I am teaching grade 8 in September and would love some suggestions as I start planning for the year. Thanks!

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This is genius! I can’t wait to get started tomorrow teaching argument. It’s always something that I have struggled with, and I’ve been teaching for 18 years. I have a class of 31 students, mostly boys, several with IEPs. The self-paced mini-lessons will help tremendously.

So glad you liked it, Britney!

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My students will begin the journey into persuasion and argument next week and your post cemented much of my thinking around how to facilitate the journey towards effective, enthusiastic argumentative writing.

I use your rubrics often to outline task expectations for my students and the feedback from them is how useful breaking every task into steps can be as they are learning new concepts.

Additionally, we made the leap into blogging as a grade at https://mrsdsroadrunners.edublogs.org/2019/01/04/your-future/ It feels much like trying to learn to change a tire while the car is speeding down the highway. Reading your posts over the past years was a factor in embracing the authentic audience. Thank You! Trish

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I love reading and listening to your always helpful tips, tricks, and advice! I was wondering if you had any thoughts on creative and engaging ways to have students share their persuasive writing? My 6th students are just finishing up our persuasive writing where we read the book “Oh, Rats” by Albert Marrin and used the information gathered to craft a persuasive piece to either eliminate or protect rats and other than just reading their pieces to one another, I have been trying to think of more creative ways to share. I thought about having a debate but (un)fortunately all my kids are so sweet and are on the same side of the argument – Protect the Rats! Any ideas?

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Hi Kiley! Thanks for the positive feedback! So glad to hear that you are finding value in Cult of Pedagogy! Here are a few suggestions that you may be interested in trying with your students:

-A gallery walk: Students could do this virtually if their writing is stored online or hard copies of their writing. Here are some different ways that you could use gallery walks: Enliven Class Discussions With Gallery Walks

-Students could give each other feedback using a tech tool like Flipgrid . You could assign students to small groups or give them accountability partners. In Flipgrid, you could have students sharing back and forth about their writing and their opinions.

I hope this helps!

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I love the idea of mentor texts for all of these reading and writing concepts. I saw a great one on Twitter with one text and it demonstrated 5-6 reasons to start a paragraph, all in two pages of a book! Is there a location that would have suggestions/lists of mentor texts for these areas? Paragraphs, sentences, voice, persuasive writing, expository writing, etc. It seems like we could share this info, save each other some work, and curate a great collection of mentor text for English Language Arts teachers. Maybe it already exists?

Hi Maureen,

Here are some great resources that you may find helpful:

Craft Lessons Second Edition: Teaching Writing K-8 Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts and Mentor Texts, 2nd edition: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6

Thanks so much! I’ll definitely look into these.

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I love the steps for planning an argumentative essay writing. When we return from Christmas break, we will begin starting a unit on argumentative writing. I will definitely use the steps. I especially love Step #2. As a 6th grade teacher, my students love to argue. This would set the stage of what argumentative essay involves. Thanks for sharing.

So glad to hear this, Gwen. Thanks for letting us know!

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Great orientation, dear Jennifer. The step-by-step carefully planned pedagogical perspectives have surely added in the information repository of many.

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Hi Jennifer,

I hope you are well. I apologise for the incorrect spelling in the previous post.

Thank you very much for introducing this effective instruction for teaching argumentative writing. I am the first year PhD student at Newcastle University, UK. My PhD research project aims to investigate teaching argumentative writing to Chinese university students. I am interested in the Argumentative Writing unit you have designed and would like to buy it. I would like to see the preview of this book before deciding to purchase it. I clicked on the image BUT the font of the preview is so small and cannot see the content clearly. I am wondering whether it could be possible for you to email me a detailed preview of what’s included. I would highly appreciate if you could help me with this.

Thank you very much in advance. Looking forward to your reply.

Take care and all the very best, Chang

Hi Chang! Jenn’s Argumentative Writing Unit is actually a teaching unit geared toward grades 7-12 with lessons, activities, etc. If you click here click here to view the actual product, you can click on the green ‘View Preview’ button to see a pretty detailed preview of what’s offered. Once you open the preview, there is the option to zoom in so you can see what the actual pages of the unit are like. I hope this helps!

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Great Content!

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Another teacher showed me one of your posts, and now I’ve read a dozen of them. With teaching students to argue, have you ever used the “What’s going on in this picture?” https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture?module=inline I used it last year and thought it was a non-threatening way to introduce learners to using evidence to be persuasive since there was no text.

I used to do something like this to help kids learn how to make inferences. Hadn’t thought of it from a persuasive standpoint. Interesting.

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this is a very interesting topic, thanks!

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Hi! I’m a teacher too! I was looking for inspiration and I found your article and thought you might find this online free tool interesting that helps make all students participate meaningfully and engage in a topic. https://www.kialo-edu.com/

This tool is great for student collaboration and to teach argumentative writing in an innovative way. I hope this helps!

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Iowa Reading Research Center

Teacher using a mentor text to help teach her students in a classroom

Using Mentor Texts to Learn From the Best and Improve Students’ Writing

Truth be told, there are very few phrases my [ speaking as  post co-author  Sean ] high school teachers used during instruction that I remember to this day. Ironically, if taken at face value, the phrase I do still remember promotes outright thievery.

My high school journalism teacher Jack Kennedy told us:  “If you are going to steal, steal from the best.”  Of course, he was not advocating larceny. In the context of teaching us how to write, he also was not teaching us to plagiarize. He was emphasizing that learning techniques and approaches from other writers’ work, and using what you learn in your own writing, is a good thing. He taught us to read the best writers for this purpose, and we devoured articles from  Sports Illustrated ,  Time , and  Rolling Stone  and talked about them in class.

Most teachers are not going to be able to bring in the most accomplished writers, such as journalist  Malcom Gladwell  or novelist  Courtney Summers , for mentoring sessions with their students. However, teachers can do the next best thing by using mentor texts as part of their writing instruction. These texts also can be used to help children and teens become better writers at home.

What Are Mentor Texts?

Those articles we read and discussed in Kennedy’s class were  mentor texts . Mentor texts are written pieces that serve as an example of good writing for student writers. The texts are read for the purpose of studying the  author’s craft , or the way the author uses words and structures the writing. The goal is to provide students a model they could emulate in crafting their own piece. Essays, passages, articles, chapters, or full books could all serve as mentor texts. So too could a letter, email, film script, or comic strip, depending on the context under which the mentor text is being used.

What Constitutes a Good Mentor Text?

A good mentor text will be something student writers can read (individually or as a group), identify techniques and approaches used by the writer, discuss and understand why those approaches were effective, and integrate what they learned from this process into their own writing. A mentor text will  show , not just tell, students how to write well, and allow them to envision the kind of writer they can be as they develop their skills (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017).

Three Qualities of a Good Mentor Text

  • You (the educator) think it is good.  If you will be reading the mentor text aloud with students or assigning them to read it, choose something  you  consider to exemplify good writing. Do not pick a piece or a writer just because his or her work has a reputation for being good. If you are indifferent about the piece, it will be difficult to authentically teach students to emulate the writing.
  • It is understandable for your students.  Although it is an added bonus if a mentor text is about a topic that is of interest to students, fundamentally, students must be able to comprehend the piece. This does not mean to avoid all challenging texts. You can go over difficult vocabulary with students prior to having them read the mentor text independently or in a group. That way, they will not get frustrated when they reach those challenging words (Gil, 2017).
  • It is relevant to what you are teaching.  If you are teaching a unit on writing persuasive essays, do not choose a hilarious parody article. If you are teaching students how to write a lead or introductory paragraph, make sure you include the beginning of the piece, not a beautifully composed conclusion from a long research paper. If you want students to identify and implement several writing techniques into their own writing, choose a text where the writer did multiple things well.

In addition to textbook passages and texts that are part of your specific literacy curriculum, mentor texts can be found from a variety of other sources.

Potential Sources of Mentor Texts

  • “In the wild”:  You may encounter or already know of excellent mentor texts without even trying. Perhaps you subscribe to a literary magazine that had an article last month with incredible use of metaphors and similes. Or, maybe you frequently think back to reading the journalistic profile of an actor that had great use of direct quotes. When you encounter good examples of authors’ craft, print them out, email them to yourself, or bookmark them on your computer. You can never have too many mentor texts in your toolbox for a future writing lesson.
  • Students’ peers:  Student writers may be more likely to connect to a mentor text written by someone close to them in age or writing experience. They also may have greater confidence in their abilities to implement in their own writing the techniques that a peer used, as opposed to emulating a more experienced professional writer. For example, if you have a unit on narrative poetry coming up, you might recall reading a narrative poem in the magazine just published by your high school’s poetry club that contained captivating character development. You may know that the local university’s arts and culture magazine always has strong student-written reviews that would work great for your lesson on how to write a movie review. Go to student publications and see what you can find.
  • Go straight for the best:  Teach using mentor texts that won prestigious prizes like the  Pulitzer Prize  for journalism or fiction, or  The Masters Review  short story award. This can also be a way to find outstanding mentor texts by students’ peers, such as winners from the  Paul Engle High School Essay Contest.  As mentioned previously, make sure to select something  you  actually think is well written, not just because it won a prize.

Teaching With Mentor Texts

Once you have identified mentor texts that you want to use, your students can gain the most from them with some instruction. Research findings indicate that using mentor texts as part of comprehensive writing instruction can result in students improving as writers. A large-scale statistical review (meta-analysis) resulting in the recommendation of 11 key elements of effective adolescent writing instruction included teaching students to analyze and emulate mentor texts (referred to in the report as  models ; Graham & Perin, 2007).

An action research project suggested that picture books might be useful as mentor texts for struggling writers (Premont, Young, Wilcox, Dean, & Morrison, 2017). The teacher read the mentor texts aloud, followed by a class discussion. Students then considered the writing traits explored in the picture books when writing their own personal narrative. The student writers’ improved their sentence fluency, word choice, and writing conventions such as punctuation. Picture books may not be the best choice for every class or specific lesson, but they may work well as a change-of-pace alternative, as long as they have sufficient text to work with.

The authors of a descriptive study wrote that mentor texts also might have application for teaching overall structure and necessary contents for subject-specific writing (Pytash, Edmondson, & Tait, 2014). A teacher would read aloud a white paper in a high school economics class and highlight the techniques and vocabulary used by the author. Students then worked in groups to analyze the text further before writing their own economics papers. An analysis of their writing and comments made in interviews seemed to suggest that reading the mentor text provided students’ knowledge of how to structure their own papers, how to effectively use transitional words, the need to include evidence for their claims, and the need to recognize bias in their own writing and the writing of others.

A study with younger students ages 7-11 found that their quality of writing improved from pretest to posttest when teachers taught with mentor texts (Corden, 2007). Over the course of a school year, teachers used mentor texts as models of particular narrative forms and writing styles during daily instruction. They read aloud the texts to the class, focusing on structural or stylistic features. This was followed by a shared writing of sentences or paragraphs using techniques identified in the mentor texts. Then, students further investigated the mentor texts in small groups. Students followed all this by transferring ideas and devices learned into their author notebooks during weekly independent work. The resulting students’ writing showed significant progress in structure and style. Although students were not compared to a group of peers who were not receiving the mentor text instruction, the authors noted that the average improvement of students in the project exceeded the expected rate of normal writing progress over the course of a school year. The techniques discussed in the mentor texts were evident in the students’ writing.

Overview of Steps for Teaching Writing Using Mentor Texts

  • Directly teach students what they should recognize in a piece of mentor text.  For example, if students are unfamiliar with figurative language, it will be difficult for them to recognize it or label its properties in a text. No matter how good the piece of writing might be, knowing what makes it so compelling is not necessarily intuitive for student writers. Authentic writing used as mentor text likely does not come with a set of directions pointing out what the author has done or what the particular technique is called. You will need to introduce that element of author’s craft first by defining it and giving easily understood or simple examples before asking students to apply that knowledge in studying a mentor text.
  • Have students read the mentor text.  Depending on the age of the students and their familiarity with reading to identify a particular type of author’s craft, you may want to read the mentor text aloud to them. Reading in small groups or reading individually are also options. As students become familiar with recognizing one or more elements of writing, you can transition from reading aloud to having students read the mentor text individually.
  • Engage in a discussion about the text by asking questions.  Though opinions on the mentor text’s topic should not be the focus of the discussion, it is important to establish that students understand what the text is about (Gil, 2017). Next, move to the crux of the discussion by asking students about the technique or approach used by the writer. Initially, you will need to model for students how you identify in the text the element of language or structure that you are teaching them. Think aloud to describe for students what makes the author’s craft stand out to you. As students become familiar with analyzing a mentor text, ask them to identify where and how the technique(s) they are learning were used in the text and why the writer was effective at using the technique. The discussion is a time to slow down and focus on individual words, sentences, and paragraphs and how these convey meaning to the reader (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017). Talk about writing decisions that the writer made, section-by-section, and why certain words and phrases were used to make points (Pytash & Morgan, 2014).
  • Time for students to write using what they learned from the mentor text.  If possible, have students begin writing existing or new pieces right away, with a focus on emulating the techniques and approaches of the mentor text writer. This too will need to be modeled for students first. Think aloud as you demonstrate for students how you adapt an example from the mentor text to incorporate that craft into your own writing. With guidance and practice, students should be able to take what they learned, using their own writer’s voice, and tell the story they want to tell. As they write, help students revisit and reflect on their conclusions about what the writer did well in the mentor text.
  • Assess the students’ writing and provide feedback.  What level of success did students have in using the writing techniques and approaches of the mentor text writer in their own writing? Provide specific praise and constructive feedback. Ask for revisions where opportunities for improved use of the techniques and approaches exist. Peers can also provide feedback in a writer’s workshop or small-group setting, depending on the students’ ability level and prior experience providing peer feedback.

Using the “Improve Your Writing Using Mentor Texts” organizer (see Supplemental Materials for Teachers and Families below), students can read and respond to a mentor text as a class, in small groups, or as individuals.

By finding and using excellent mentor texts as part of writing instruction in the classroom or at home, you can help students progress from “stealing” from the best to learning to “read as writers.” This involves reading with a sharp eye for writing techniques and approaches that they can use to become multi-skilled writers like those successful scribes they wish to emulate.

Supplemental Materials for Teachers and Families

Improve Your Writing Using Mentor Texts

This organizer can be used in a group or individual setting to guide thinking and discussion about a mentor text, and how students can identify techniques and approaches used by the writer to improve their own writing.

Corden, R. (2007). Developing reading-writing connections: The impact of explicit instruction of literary devices on the quality of children’s narrative writing.  Journal of Research in Childhood Education ,  21 , 269-289. doi:10.1080/02568540709594594

Dorfman, L. R., & Cappelli, R. (2017).  Mentor texts: Teaching writing through children’s literature, K-6  (2nd ed.). Stenhouse Publishers.

Gil, C. (2017, June 1). 8 Tips for Teaching With Mentor Texts.  Edutopia . Retrieved from  https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-tips-teaching-mentor-texts-christina-gil

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007).  Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools . Retrieved from Carnegie Corporation of New York website:  https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/3c/f5/3cf58727-34f4-4140-a014-723a00ac56f7/ccny_report_2007_writing.pdf

Premont, D. W., Young, T. A., Wilcox, B., Dean, D., & Morrison, T. G. (2017). Picture books as mentor texts for 10th grade struggling writers.  Literacy Research and Instruction ,  4 , 290-310. doi:10.1080/19388071.2017.1338803

Pytash, K. E., Edmondson, E., & Tait, A. (2014). Using mentor texts for writing instruction in high school economics class.  Social Studies Research and Practice ,  9 (1), 95-106. Retrieved from  http://www.socstrpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/MS-6543-Paytesh.pdf

Pytash, K. E., & Morgan, D. N. (2014). Using mentor texts to teach writing in science and social studies.  The Reading Teacher ,  68 , 93-102. doi:10.1002/trtr.1276

Boston College Libraries homepage

Mentor Texts to Teach Writing Styles

Opinion/persuasive, opinion/persuasive literature for mentor texts, children's literature.

Cover Art

Children's Magazines to use for Mentor Text

  • Flipster This link opens in a new window Digital magazine platform that includes popular titles such as AdWeek, Forbes, Fortune, Consumer Reports, Variety, Bloomberg Business Week, Highlights, Cricket, and more.

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature for Mentor Text

Cover Art

Middle Grade/High School Databases for Opinion/Persuasive Writing

  • Global Issues in Context This link opens in a new window Resource presenting viewpoints from a global perspective on what's happening in the world today and why.
  • Gale in context: Middle School This link opens in a new window Designed for middle school students. Curriculum-aligned magazines, newspapers, videos, and primary sources covering literature, science, social studies, U.S. and world history, and more.
  • Gale OneFile: High School Edition This link opens in a new window This database is designed for high school students, in grades 9-12, with access to a variety of indexed and full-text magazines, newspapers and reference books for information on current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.
  • Children's Literature Comprehensive Database This link opens in a new window The CLCD database provides bibliographic data, reviews, awards, and lists for children's books, audio books, and videos. The database contains over 900,000 catalog records, and 130,000 full text reviews from 24 review sources. Approximately 1500 new reviews are added each month. There are retrospective reviews going back 10 years. Additionally, there are links to author sites, publishers, parent resources, curriculum resources and information on reading measurement programs.
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  • Last Updated: Dec 22, 2023 3:17 PM
  • Subjects: Education K-12 curriculum
  • Tags: children's literature , writing , young adult books
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Teaching with Jennifer Findley

Upper Elementary Teaching Blog

September 17, 2014 | 3 Comments | Filed Under: Writing & Grammar

Teaching Persuasive Writing with a Mentor Text

Persuasive Writing

I absolutely love teaching persuasive writing, and I love using mentor texts even more. This year, I used the picture book, I Wanna New Room . This read aloud follows the same format of I Wanna Iguana with letters back and forth from the child to the parents.

Teaching Persuasive Writing with a Mentor Text

My main focus for this lesson was on choosing a main point and providing valid resources to support that point. I also wanted to focus on how details are needed to support each reason given. After the read and enjoyed the book once, we created this anchor chart, using the examples from the text.

Teaching Persuasive Writing with a Mentor Text

After discussing the book, we were able to come up with three reasons with each reason having two details to support it. This was a great starting point for the students to come up with 3 reasons with supporting details for their own persuasive texts. I refer to this anchor chart often to remind the students that a good persuasive text has a clear main point, three reasons, and supporting details to support the reasons.

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September 19, 2014 at 5:39 pm

Great example of picking apart a text and using it as a model!

September 21, 2014 at 5:57 pm

I use My Lucky Day and The a True Story of the Three Pigs

October 19, 2014 at 10:04 pm

In the past I have used Click, Clack, Moo! I love your anchor chart.

Kim Quinnessential Lessons

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persuasive essay mentor text high school

Welcome friends! I’m Jennifer Findley: a teacher, mother, and avid reader. I believe that with the right resources, mindset, and strategies, all students can achieve at high levels and learn to love learning. My goal is to provide resources and strategies to inspire you and help make this belief a reality for your students. Learn more about me.

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Curating Mentor Texts That Inspire Student Writers

Mentor texts that reflect the breadth and depth of student experiences not only get students enthusiastic about writing but also help build a sense of belonging at school.

Writing is a complex process that encompasses everything from forming solid ideas to expressing them with creativity and coherence—as well as discovering new insights along the way. And whether your students are mastering the basics or looking to expand their writing abilities, mentor texts can be a useful, “show-don’t-tell” tool that helps them achieve their goals.

Traditionally, mentor texts are exemplary books or essays that you use to model good writing for students as they read, deconstruct, and analyze various facets of the works. These texts aren’t meant to just guide students to develop their vocabulary, sentence structure, and grammar—they also play an essential role in influencing students’ reading comprehension, critical thinking, and imagination . “When the content of learning about the structure of a narrative eventually fades in a student’s rearview mirror, what’s left is the thinking they gained,” writes Kara Douma , a supervisor of English language arts, describing the value of mentor texts.

To make sure the mentor texts in your classroom are engaging, up-to-date, and relevant to an increasingly diverse body of students across the nation, consider implementing a few of the strategies below as you curate your collection of mentor texts.

Broaden the Definition of Writing

Books, magazines, and essay collections aren’t the only places where you can find examples of good writing, as teachers have long known. Good writing exists in an abundance of formats, from songs and poems to comics. Aside from including a variety of formats, your go-to set of mentor texts should reflect a range of writing modes—such as narrative, informational, and opinion—and writing levels, from student work on up to polished texts by professional writers.

Content from genres such as comics and graphic novels is appealing to students since “the fusion of words with images supports literacy development in all learners,” writes Dan Ryder , a former teacher and education director at Mount Blue Campus in Farmington, Maine. Try looking for comics that have a strong narrative arc and let students talk about the texts in pairs or small groups. In Ryder’s high school classroom, students also learn how to create their own comics by interviewing people around them or collecting icons and objects from old magazines.

Teachers also tell us they have used song lyrics or poems to help guide student writing in their classrooms. High school English teacher Elizabeth Jorgensen, for example, uses exemplary poems written by young authors to help her students ease into writing their own. Jorgensen identifies contemporary poets through literary journals and poetry competitions, and she finds that her students relate to these poems more than those from the traditional canon because they allow students “to see themselves in poetry, to realize that they too can write successfully.”

And other educators, like high school English teacher Jori Krulder , have tapped into the ever-growing world of podcasts, letting students do research and present their findings in the form of a podcast instead of a traditional paper. Throughout this process, Krulder’s students listen to professional podcasts as mentor texts, and analyze them using questions such as, “What do the creators do at the beginning, at the end, and during transitions?” or “What is the main idea or insight that this podcast is illuminating?”

While learning the technological ropes can take some time, in the end her students “worked harder on the analysis and synthesis—and did far more thinking—than they would have done if I were the only audience,” Krulder writes.

Connecting to Student Experiences

While good writing takes a lot of practice, you want to send the message that it is within students’ reach by showing how young writers have been successful, so your students see they can learn a lot from their peers.

It’s intuitive to search for mentor texts in prestigious publications that feature established authors, but showing students texts by someone close to their age or writing experience can encourage them to “have greater confidence in their abilities to implement in their own writing the techniques that a peer used,” write Sean Thompson and Deborah K. Reed , researchers at the Iowa Reading Research Center. They suggest supplementing your lessons with works from student publications whenever possible, such as using exemplary poems produced by poetry club members—or you can use poems from student competitions, as Jorgensen does—or movie reviews from the school’s art and culture magazine.

If you haven’t already, begin building an archive of your students’ exemplary work, and let the writers know that their work will be shared—anonymously if preferred—with students in subsequent years. It’s likely that students will work on similar assignments from year to year, and it can be helpful to learn from the collective wisdom of previous peers. Having done this in her elementary classroom, writing teacher Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski explains at Two Writing Teachers that her students are able to “see a model that is closer to what they can approximate and the gap doesn’t feel as wide as it might when comparing their writing to a professional, published piece.”

Effective mentor texts inspire students to experiment with new writing techniques, structure, or plotlines, but they should also provide windows and mirrors—in the metaphor popularized by Rudine Sims Bishop —for students to see both themselves and their peers represented in the texts and their writers. Literacy consultant Stacey Schubitz recommends doing an audit of your mentor texts to ensure that you include books written about and by people from all walks of life, both in your community and around the world.

Realistic Expectations

To help students have realistic expectations of themselves as writers, it will help if your archive of mentor texts—by both students and more experienced writers—includes revisions, so they can see that those stellar essays didn’t start out as stellar. Another way to approach this, writes David Cutler , a history and journalism teacher, is to do your own quick writes for your assignments as students watch, so they can observe your writing process and the kinds of revisions you make even as you’re working on a first draft.

Students see “how I constantly refine my work, moving often between paragraphs to tweak structure and narrative flow. Meanwhile, I field questions about my thought process, such as why I have decided to tweak a clause or reconsider my syntax,” Cutler explains. And “to deter students from feeling deflated by my productivity,” he adds, “I remind them that I’ve had much longer to think about their assignment and that I’ve been teaching these skills for a dozen years.”

Another helpful way to encourage students to use mentor texts as models is to scaffold more advanced, jargon-rich texts, which may prompt students who are often frustrated by difficult vocabulary to “[give] up as soon as they come across an unfamiliar word,” writes former teacher Christina Gil . She recommends spending a few minutes going over any words that they might find discouraging, as well as being patient as students attempt to understand and implement the techniques they learn from mentor texts.

Mentor texts that reflect the breadth and depth of student experiences not only get students enthusiastic about writing but also help build a sense of belonging at school. The more students see themselves in what they're trying to emulate, the more engaged they will be as aspiring writers.

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153: 6 Powerful Mentor Texts for Secondary ELA

  • May 17, 2022

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Are you ready for mentor texts your students sit up and pay attention to? That’s what today’s episode is all about. I’ve invited five special guests on to share their top favorite mentor text with you, and I’m so excited!

Each of these creative education thinkers will bring their own take on the power of mentor texts, exploring children’s books and YA novels, poetry and podcasts, student work and video. By the end of this show, you’ll be thinking in a totally different way about how you can use mentor texts to help your students grow as creators, and I have a feeling that YOU’LL be feeling pretty excited too.

As you listen, each guest will introduce herself, share her favorite mentor, and then let you know where you can learn more, then I’ll pop back in at the end to share the last one. I hope you’ll enjoy this special collaborative episode!

You can listen in below, click here to tune in on any podcast player, or read on for the full post.

#1 Mentors beyond the Printed Page, with Angela from Make Writing Studios

This Is a Generic Brand Video, by Dissolve from Dissolve on Vimeo .

Here’s what Angela has to say about this mentor text:

“Writing is so much bigger than written words alone! I love using street art, billboards, podcasts, commercials, photographs, videos, infographics, comics, zines, and even nature to demonstrate what compositions are and how arguments, stories, and informational texts are offered to us all day long through unexpected modes and outlets. Make time to look for Kendra Eash’s This is a Generic Brand Video , and invite the young writers and designers in your world to think about how writing is the use of image, sound, gesture, alignment, and even vibration.”

If you’d like to learn more about how to bring multimodal composition into your own classroom (check out the pictures below), Angela has left a TON of free lessons, units, starter sets,  resources, tools, and mentor texts right here for you: https://linktr.ee/AngelaStockman .

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Connect with Angela on Twitter @AngelaStockman .

persuasive essay mentor text high school

#2 Mentors with Passion, with Amanda from Amanda Write Now

Here’s what Amanda has to say about this mentor text:

“My favorite modern mentor text is any text written by a passionate student. These students are sometimes my own but they can also be students I’ve never met before. One of the most powerful mentor texts I’ve used to model voice and passion in writing was in the form of a video capturing a 7th grade girl’s middle school experience. The assignment this young girl was given was to write a monologue about something she was passionate about. She wrote from the heart and told her truth. When students can write from their heart and share their truth confidently, they can do anything they set their minds to.”

See the video here.

Check out Amanda’s website here.

#3 Children’s Books as Mentor Texts, with Melissa from The Reading & Writing Haven

persuasive essay mentor text high school

What Melissa has to say about this mentor text:

“Picture books are one of the most powerful mentor texts at our fingertips, and I don’t think we leverage them enough. Even (and especially) with older students, picture books often have just as much depth and complexity for discussion and analysis as a novel. That’s why picture books are my favorite, go-to mentor texts . 

It’s hard to pick just one picture book because there are so many amazing works of art, but for the sake of recommendation, I adore When I Draw a Panda by Amy June Bates. The author skillfully weaves together a beautiful theme and the power of captivating aesthetics.

The front pages of the book include rigid, step-by-step directions for how to draw a variety of animals and images “perfectly.” These same images frame the end of the book, but here, the perfect step-by-step instructions are scribbled all over, symbolizing that there is no one right way to draw. 

In between those bookends, the story follows a child who chooses to color outside the lines, to embrace her own style, and to bring her imagination to life. When I Draw a Panda is threaded with the message that the power of creativity and an independent spirit are to be celebrated.

Specific teaching opportunities for this book as a mentor text might include:

  • Using it to introduce sketchnotes. There’s no fear in drawing!
  • Analyzing how a poet can craft a stronger voice by playing with word and line arrangement.
  • Studying the use of dialogue, sentence structure, and parallelism.
  • Evaluating how word choice impacts mood and tone.
  • Identifying how oxymora can be used to provide contradictions between ideas.

And more! Try introducing this mentor texts to your students as a general interactive read aloud, and you’ll be amazed at how often you can refer back to it to study specific ELA skills and concepts. There’s something magical that happens when we read picture books in the classroom. I hope you cherish this book as much as I do.”

Discover more great read-alouds from Melissa here.

Follow Melissa on Instagram @readingandwritinghaven .

#4 Jason Reynold’s Long Way Down as a Mentor Text, with Christina from The Daring English Teacher

persuasive essay mentor text high school

What Christina has to say about this mentor text:

“I love using Jason Reynolds’ verse novel Long Way Down as part of the poetry unit that I use in my sophomore English class. At first, when I tell students that we are going to read an entire novel written in poem-form, students groan and complain. However, it only takes the very first poem of the book, and the students are hooked. There are two mentor text activities I assign with this novel – and both revolve around using Reynolds’ form as a mentor text for students to write their own poems. The first poem I use is “My Name Is,” and I have students begin writing their own name poem on the first day we start writing. Modeling Reynolds’ form, student write a poem about themselves. I am always so shocked to learn more about my students in the second semester of the school. The second activity is using Reynolds’ poem BEEF as a mentor text. With this activity, I have students, once again, model Reynolds’ form, to write their own extended simile poem. I absolutely love reading what they come up with.”

Check out Christina’s blog post filled with ideas for Long Way Down here.

Follow Christina @thedaringenglishteacher on Instagram

#5 Powerful Poetry as a Mentor Text, with Amanda Cardenas from Mud and Ink Teaching

What Amanda has to say about this mentor text:

“Shane Koyczan’s poem “How to Be a Person” is my go-to mentor text for resetting after a long break or establishing classroom culture.  As a writing mentor, I like to use this poem to showcase the possibilities for structure in a poem:  in this case, the poet uses a list, and it’s an easy to imitate structure that makes writing poetry feel more accessible for students.”

Check out the step-by-step over on Amanda’s website right here.

Follow Amanda on Instagram @mudandinkteaching

#6 Using Podcasts as Mentor Texts, with Betsy from Spark Creativity

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Hey, it’s me, Betsy! I’m back! I’ve created so many podcasting projects over the last few years, and I always start in the same place, with inspiring, or hilarious, or weird, or fun, or wacky podcast episodes as mentor texts. I want students to understand some of the moves podcasters make before they hit the record button, and the easiest (and most interesting) way to do that is by playing podcasts for them and then considering which moves are worth trying.

For the vocabulary podcast project pictured above that I recently designed for The Lighthouse, I picked four really different, super short podcast episodes that are all trying to teach new words in different ways. As they listen, students can think about which moves they like and which ones they definitely don’t.

Do they like Vocabulary Vera’s hilariously over-the-top accent that makes you laugh (or maybe cringe, depending on your age) the moment you turn it on?

Do they like how Dictionary.com uses literary examples?

Do they like how the BBC explains the connection between many words through a single prefix?

Do they find Merriam-Webster’s explanation incredibly boring? (Ha, or is that just me).

Which podcast has the best music? The best listener challenge?

After listening to several podcasts while thinking like a podcaster, students can begin to imagine what they want (and equally important, what they don’t want) for their own podcast style, tone, structure, and content. Same goes for examining podcast covers, show notes, and music.

So now you’ve got six fun ways to explore more modern mentor texts for your classroom. I think I can speak for all of us today when I say if you try one of these out, we’d love to hear about it. Share what you’re up to with us and tag us over on teachergram, we’d love to know how your mentor text explorations turn out!

persuasive essay mentor text high school

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10 Steps to Teach Persuasive Writing

Teaching Opinion Writing in Upper Elementary

Kids are natural-born persuaders. They do it all the time. The trick as a teacher is to take their set of skills and help them use their power for good. And by good, I mean to channel these skills into writing effective persuasive pieces.

So, what exactly do we need to do to teach persuasive writing? I won’t lie to you…it’s not an easy task, but I’ll try to break it down here and simplify the steps to hopefully make this something that you can use in your classroom.

1. Teach Paragraph Writing FIRST

Before I even begin to think about teaching students to create an opinion piece, I make sure that my class has learned the basics of writing a good paragraph. We spend a lot of time with each component, and after they’ve mastered one paragraph, we move on to the five-paragraph essay.

Since I teach 4th/5th, this is one of the standards we need to reach. Once I know that students can write a reasonably good essay, then they can learn an opinion essay a little more easily.

Mentor texts for teaching persuasive writing

2. Use Mentor Texts to Introduce Opinion Writing

I am a big fan of mentor texts. I just love how picture books easily capture the attention of my “big” kids, while quickly teaching them so many lessons.

When I teach opinion writing, I like to gather several of these persuasive mentor texts and share them with my class. We talk about how the character used persuasive techniques well, or how he/she didn’t.

Mentor texts for teaching persuasive writing

3. Start With the Big Picture

Before we start to officially write, we talk about what an opinion essay is and isn’t. I like to give students three choices with similar topics and ask them which one is the opinion essay. For example, they might choose between these titles: The Magical Elephant, Elephants and Their Families, and How to Save the Elephants. Next, I have a handout that shows the structure of an opinion essay. Since we’ve written five-paragraph essays before, they have a good handle on the basic essay structure. Then I guide them step by step through each component. We absolutely do not write a single opinion essay until we’ve had the opportunity to have lots of mini-lessons, see many examples, and practice all parts of the essay in a very low-stakes environment.

4. The Introduction Paragraph is First

A. introduce hooks.

Now we spend some time focusing on how to start the essay. We start by using a hook (also called a lead).

I like to describe a writing “hook” using a fishing analogy. The fisherman puts a nice pink, juicy worm on the hook, hoping to attract the attention of the fish. If the fish bites, the fisherman’s happy. If the fish doesn’t bite, that means that it wasn’t interested in the hook, and there won’t be any fish caught.

Our goal as a writer is to get the reader interested by “hooking” them into reading our essay, from the very first sentence.

We go over six different types of hooks and practice these. I also love using opinion writing posters as I introduce each new opinion essay concept. They’re a great reference for students on the wall or printed in miniature for writing notebooks.

B. Review Topic Sentences 

For an opinion essay, the topic sentence is the opinion sentence. It is the author’s viewpoint. We do a lesson reviewing the five types of topic sentences we use for paragraph and essay writing, and I show students how to tweak these into opinion statements.

C. Time to Add the Three Reasons 

The last part of the introduction lists the three reasons for our opinion. I teach students that these can be listed as a single sentence with commas between them, or we can write three separate sentences, one for each reason.

For the first lesson on reasons, I give students a topic (cell phones or vending machines at school or which season is the best, etc.) and then ask students to write three bullet points on their whiteboards. Next to each one, they write a word to describe a reason they like/dislike this idea.

For example, if the topic was school uniforms, the child might write lack of individuality, gets boring, uncomfortable… I can quickly glance at their lists while we discuss a few of them, and then we’re ready to practice with the next topic.

Without writing a whole essay, this is teaching students to think about organization and how reasons help support their opinions. I think this kind of practice is great!

When we transition this activity to a full essay, these reasons would turn into the topic sentences for each body paragraph of a five-paragraph opinion essay! 

Btw.. if you don’t have whiteboards for your class, this is something you’ll really want to consider. They’re great for writing practice and so many things. I actually purchased shower boards at Home Depot for about $15 to make into whiteboards. They cut them into 12 x 12-inch squares for me for free!

5. Review, Review, Review

After we spend some time on each main section of the opinion essay (the introduction, the body paragraphs, and the conclusion), I like to give my students activities to really reinforce what they’ve learned. Besides review worksheets, we do games (like Stump the Expert), sorts, and color coding.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

I really like to have students color code already-made paragraphs so they can see examples of quality writing, and they can master the structure of the paragraph . Once we’ve reviewed the introduction, it’s time to move on to the body paragraphs.

6. The Three Body Paragraphs are Next

There are three parts of each body paragraph, and I teach each part separately, one by one. The parts include a topic sentence that starts with a transition, three to five details to describe and explain the author’s reason for his/her viewpoint, and a conclusion sentence.

These three paragraphs are the meat of the essay. This is where students explain why they support or don’t support something.

We spend time doing activities like looking at three sentences and identifying which one is the topic sentence, which one is a detail, and which one is a conclusion sentence.

We look at pre-made topic sentences and related conclusion sentences and rate them as part of a great class discussion and then in pairs or independently. Then, we review with more color coding, games, and sorts.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

7. Focus on the Conclusion Paragraph

Conclusions can be a little intimidating for some students. Maybe it’s because they’re tired from the heavy lifting of the other four paragraphs, but with practice, you can help take away some of their apprehension and replace it with confidence!

The conclusion paragraph is a shorter paragraph (in 3rd – 5th grade) than a body paragraph. It has three distinct parts, an opinion sentence that starts with a transition, the three reasons, and a final thought or call to action.

A. The Opinion Sentence Starting with a Transition

The opinion sentence is really a topic sentence. It reinforces the same idea presented in the introduction paragraph but uses synonyms and usually a different type of topic sentence than the introduction to add variety.

We go over specific transitions that can be used for conclusions. While students may not always use a transition for their conclusion later on, I think it gives students structure and helps them break the ice of crafting a strong conclusion paragraph.

B. The Three Reasons (again!)

Just like the introduction paragraph, the conclusion paragraph lists the three reasons, usually in a single sentence with commas. Like always, you’ll want students to reword the sentence using synonyms to add variety.

C. The Conclusion, The Ending, The VERY LAST SENTENCE!

This last sentence is another place students may feel apprehensive to write at first. We go over the difference between a final thought and a call to action and practice by seeing lots of exemplars and then creating our own.

By the time we’re finished, most students understand how to gracefully and effectively add the conclusion sentence to finish the opinion essay.

Just like we usually do, once we finish a section, we review that section carefully using handouts, sorts, color coding, games, and reviews.

8. Share an Opinion Essay Example

It’s one thing to talk about an opinion essay’s components and to even practice them. It’s another thing to see a really good example of an essay and to get to go through it and discuss what makes it work and why.

I have several great examples I’ve saved over the years (and I have two that I wrote and included in my opinion essay unit). We take time to color code the essay and then create a reverse outline for it. They save this essay as an example.

9. Make an Outline and an Essay as a Whole Class (Eeek!)

Okay, here’s where your perseverance has to kick in.

Trying to complete an essay as a whole class will drive even the most saintly of teachers to want to pull their hair out at times, but this hard part is crucial. There, I said it. It is that important that this is a step you shouldn’t miss.

Here’s how I do it. I break it down into two to four days. On the first day, we created an outline together. I have students write this outline in their Writer’s Notebooks as a model to refer to when they need to make their own outline later.

We always do school uniforms, because I find it to be a great topic and one that my students feel strongly about.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

I tell them for the sake of continuity, we need to take a stand as a class for the essay, whether they really agree with that stand or not. We take a class vote and then stick with it, whether it’s for or against the uniform idea.

On the second day, when we have the outline in place, I make a deal with the kids…I tell them if they stick with me, stay on task, and participate…I’ll do the writing (this time), and they can just tell me what to write.

If they don’t stay focused, then they’ll have to write it themselves. This works like magic. I’ve never had a class that lost out on this “deal.”

So, using yesterday’s outline, we go step by step and write each paragraph together. Students feed me sentences (I write these on the SmartBoard), which I try to use or gently guide them a bit where needed.

Usually, we do about 2  paragraphs in one day. The attention spans of 8 – 11-year-olds can be a killer, so I find that breaking it into several days helps.

10. Before Students Write – Go over Expectations Using a Rubric

I really like to use rubrics for lots of assignments. It breaks down the activity into its components, and it also serves as a road map for students to know what is expected of them. I think the more we can explain to students exactly what we’re looking for, the more they can meet and sometimes exceed (hallelujah) our expectations.

There’s never a reason to hide what we want from students, in my opinion. So, we go over the rubric together, and it’s a kind of review for all the lessons leading up to this. You can three-hole punch it so they can store it in their binders, or you can print it in a smaller size to fit their Writer’s Notebooks if you wish.

BONUS #11. Practice Writing Opinion Essays…Over and Over and…

Once your students have practiced each part of the opinion essay and are very familiar with its structure, it’s their turn to write independently. I choose several different topics for them over the next few weeks, and we do about an essay a week in class. The students get better as time goes by, and usually, I let them choose a topic for the last essay or two. It’s interesting to see what they come up with.

Whew…such a huge unit and so many skills to fit in, but in my mind, it is an awesome unit. I love teaching it because of the great number of discussions it provides and because I see it as an important set of tools for them to have in their writing toolboxes.

Opinion Writing Essay Bundle for 3rd - 5th Grades

If you’d like some resources for opinion writing , I love this unit I created. It’s a bundle with over 100 printable pages and includes a digital format too. It will take you through the entire process with teaching pages, and detailed teaching notes, student practice pages, activities, and posters for 3rd – 5th grade.

Sarah is a 4th Grade Teacher and uses this unit and process in her classroom. This is what she had to say. 

persuasive essay mentor text high school

CLICK HERE TO FIND THE OPINION WRITING BUNDLE ON TPT! 

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  • Teaching Persuasive Writing in a Fun Way

by Gordana S | Feb 14, 2021 | Student Skills | 0 comments

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Table of Contents

Teaching Persuasive Writing in High School—Theory and Practice

Teaching different writing skills to high school students is crucial if you want them to develop the soft skills they’ll need in life. When considering the reasons why reading and writing skills are important , it’s a mistake to think only in terms of language conventions and an excellent GPA.

Your students will have to use different writing skills and strategies in life. For example, they will need to write personal statements to get into the college of their choice. When they are enrolled, they will do college essays and write motivational letters to get internships . Adolescents enjoy coming up with creative ways to express themselves in their personal lives too. Research shows high school students enjoy writing — 93% of them do it for pleasure. 

Your students will benefit from learning persuasive writing strategies in a variety of ways. Not only will they need to master persuasion for everyday exchanges, but also for their personal statement essays and college applications. To that end, let’s see what persuasive writing encompasses and how you can teach it to your students effectively.

Take the Right Approach to Teaching Persuasive Writing

Persuasive writing is used in any text that aims to nudge readers to form an opinion or take action. While it’s a given that most persuasive writing belongs to the non-fiction genre, fiction writers can use persuasion to influence their readers’ worldviews too.

Even though your students read persuasive texts, they don’t necessarily know how to write an effective persuasive essay themselves. This means that you need to teach them the specific skills that go into composing a persuasive essay one by one.

In your teaching, you cannot miss a lesson on effective opening and closing paragraphs or the importance of outlining. You also have to teach students how to do research effectively and choose the right words to construct their sentences. Only when your students know each of the techniques used in writing persuasive texts can they compose a solid persuasive essay.

Characteristics of Persuasive Writing

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Credit: Elijah Macleod

Readers are more likely to believe a professional in the field than someone who has no connection or experience with the subject of a text. Experienced writers know that the first step to writing a persuasive piece is gaining knowledge on the topic.  

To do it, your students have to know how to do research first. When it’s clear from their essays that they know what they are writing about, their texts will be more effective and convincing. Whether they can write persuasively depends on the techniques of persuasive writing that you teach them.

Some of the most common characteristics of persuasive essays are:

  • Current statistics that support the author’s argument
  • Examples from real life
  • Observation of current events and phenomena
  • Acknowledgment and rebuttal of the opposing argument
  • Additional research from reputable institutions

These characteristics contribute to the validity of the statements in an essay and the credibility of the author. Sound, well-researched arguments should sway the reader to take the author’s point of view .

Essential Persuasion Techniques

Whether it’s used in writing or speech, persuasion has three essential elements:

Take a look at the table demonstrating what each of the three is:

You should teach your students about ethos, pathos, and logos to show them why it’s important to use those elements of persuasion. They will not only learn how to use them to their advantage but also be more successful in recognizing when their intellect and emotions are being appealed to.

Teach Your Students Persuasive Writing Skills

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Credit: Kelly Sikkema

Ethos, pathos, and logos are the backbone of persuasion. There are many techniques your students can employ to use these three elements effectively.

Teaching your students persuasive writing isn’t much different from teaching them critical or argumentative writing . Some skills—such as an excellent command of vocabulary and critical thinking—are needed for any type of writing.

The next time you are planning a persuasive writing activity, think about how you can teach these techniques to your students:

  • Establishing tone
  • Targeting a specific audience
  • Using the right words
  • Locating evidence
  • Presenting data
  • Telling a story
  • Refuting an argument
  • Appealing to the readers’ emotions 
  • Rephrasing effectively

Outlining is a prewriting activity that your students should employ when creating any type of essay. Your students should learn that a clear outline will help them in each stage of their writing process. Outlining makes it easier for them to organize their ideas into specific parts of the essay and serves as a reference they can use to check whether they are straying off topic.

If time and curricula allow, you should have a lesson dedicated to writing effective outlines only. You can distribute a sample outline of a persuasive essay to all your students to introduce them to the technique. They can see that an outline consists of:

  • The introduction —in which authors determine how they will present the topic, opposing views, and thesis statements
  • Body paragraphs —in which authors decide how they will back up their claims
  • The conclusion —which summarizes the thesis effectively and calls to action

When students have studied the outline structure, give them a sample essay to examine how well the author executed their plan. You can have a class discussion about the usefulness of an effective outline.

An interesting exercise is to allow your students to construct outlines for already written essays before they make outlines for their texts.

When your students compose outlines for their persuasive texts, make sure you give them feedback on their work. Help them see if they are on the right path.  

Establishing Tone

Tone is essential for persuasive writing. The tone your students set in their essays will build trust more than the topic of the assignment. Teach your students what tone they should use to sound confident when defending their arguments in essays.

For example, imagine your students are arguing against the rule of wearing uniforms in high schools. Rather than writing “wearing uniforms in high schools may impact the students’ self-expression negatively,” they should write “wearing uniforms in high schools eliminates the students’ self-expression.” The second sentence is more confident, and the essay assumes a stronger stand and convinces the reader that uniforms aren’t a good idea.

Targeting a Specific Audience

Instead of aiming to appeal to as many people as possible, persuasive writing is more effective if targeted at a specific audience. Depending on the argument that your students want to support or the field for which they are writing, the type of audience will vary.

When your students hand in their persuasive writing essays, you will be their only judge, but they shouldn’t see you as their target audience. Teach your students they should also appeal to a specific audience rather than the masses. You can give them a list of questions they can go over, such as:

  • Who will benefit from what I have to say the most?
  • What problems do people I address experience?
  • Who is this issue important to?
  • What has the best chance to trigger emotions in my target audience?

Using the Right Words

A careful selection of words can influence readers to feel more deeply about the problem students present in their essays, so make sure you work with them on expanding their vocabulary. Having a large number of synonyms and topic-specific vocabulary in their arsenal will help them pick the most efficient word for what they want to express.

You should also equip your students with the words and phrases that are commonly used in persuasive writing. Give them a reference list of phrases they can use and show them how specific vocabulary helps their essay convince the reader that they are knowledgeable on the topic.

An excellent exercise is to have a quick vocabulary brainstorming session with the whole class based on the topic of the essay your students need to write. For example, if they need to write a topic on pollution, your class should brainstorm on the topic-related words and phrases. This gives your students useful vocabulary for the essay, ideas on what to write about, and in turn, how to outline their texts.

Finding Evidence

The best technique to prove a point is to refer to concrete evidence that supports it. Your students may not be familiar with academic research yet, which is why it’s a good idea to teach them how to do research in high school. They will not be overwhelmed when the same is required of them in college.

Make sure your students know these rules of effective research:

  • Knowing which keywords to use to get the results fast online
  • Checking whether the information is relevant and up-to-date
  • Choosing statistics published by reputable institutions
  • Selecting the most relevant type of information for their essays

Same as outlining, research is part of almost all longer writing. If possible, dedicate a lesson to teaching the importance of research to your high school students. Another lesson should be devoted to teaching your students how they can locate data successfully.

You can start with a fun topic that is interesting to your students. For example, if there are rumors about their favorite celebrities, you can tell them to research the validity of those rumors.

Presenting Data

If the research your students do involves data, they need to present it in their essay effectively. Knowing how to present data in a persuasive essay might be more work for your students than finding it in the first place. If they clutter their essays with numbers for the sake of having them, they will probably do their writing a disservice.

The best course of action is to give students a text that presents statistics clearly and effectively. They should also learn the vocabulary that is used to explain data. Your students can then practice presenting data themselves in their essays. 

Telling a Story

Telling a story can be a great way to connect with readers. Your students need to learn how to use narration to their benefit. Make sure they don’t turn their persuasive essays into fiction, though. A story element should appeal to the reader’s emotions and influence them to take the author’s side .

Providing examples from real life can back up your students’ arguments as effectively as presenting a precedent or striking statistics. Relating real-life experience can be a neat way your students can start a speech in a school competition , for example. Teach your students they don’t have to tell stories from their personal lives if they don’t have any they would like to share.

Refuting an Argument

Acknowledging the other side of an argument is essential for successful persuasion. Readers will hardly be convinced to side with a certain opinion if the opposite one isn’t refuted.

You should make it clear to your students that they must not run from opposing viewpoints. When they present them in their persuasive essays and explain why those arguments are not as valid as their own, their essays will be that more compelling.

When you present the topics for the essay to your students, have a class discussion on the opposing views first. Each student can pick one side of the argument and practice how to refute the opposing one with their partner. 

Appealing to Readers’ Emotions 

Your students can appeal to their readers’ emotions by the use of narration or the right word choices—but these aren’t the only techniques. Others include:

  • Creating an effective hook in the introductory sentence
  • Addressing the reader directly
  • Making the reader relate to the author’s experience
  • Using direct questions to make readers think about what they have read

When your students master these nuances of persuasive writing, they should use them to a steady degree. Logic should be the primary focus of their essays rather than emotional manipulation.

You should also engage your students in acknowledging how other writers do it. The best example would be the advertisements that your students are bombarded with on the daily. The ads your students see on their phones or in the newspapers use persuasive language and appeal to their emotions. When your students recognize it, they can get ideas on how to use persuasion in their own essays and be more mindful when they are the target of persuasive writing themselves. 

Rephrasing Effectively

Your students will have to repeat themselves in their persuasive essays. Most notably, their concluding paragraph will have to restate their thesis statement. You should teach them how to paraphrase it effectively.

Teach your students to express the same idea again in other words. When they are invested in the topic of their assignment and have researched it thoroughly, they should have no problem doing that.

When you devote one lesson to closing paragraphs, give your students other authors’ intros to rephrase. They need to connect their conclusions to the hook in the original intro, but they mustn’t introduce new concepts in that final paragraph.

Activities for Teaching Persuasive Writing

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Credit: Free-Photos

You can come up with various activities to teach your students persuasive writing, but make sure to have one main goal for each activity.

To practice persuasive writing through class activities, your students can:

  • Watch and learn from other writers
  • Look for relevant sources
  • Outline their essays

Watch and Learn

For this activity, pick a good example of persuasive writing and distribute it to your students. They should single out the specific techniques the author used to influence readers.

Ask your students which persuasive methods are prevalent in the text. You can also tell them to jot down any words and phrases they believe are there for a specific reason—to make readers adopt the author’s viewpoint.

Look for Sources

If your students have little experience with research, prepare an activity that can introduce them to it carefully. You can give them a list of specific questions they can find answers to. Their answers should be backed up by relevant sources. 

Organize Your Ideas

Having your students create an outline for their persuasive essay should be an individual activity. Teach them the main parts of an outline and let them try their hand at writing one.

Here’s an idea of what a persuasive essay outline should cover:

How To Teach Persuasive Writing—Your Ideas

If you have ample experience in teaching, you might be familiar with many of the points mentioned in this article. Perhaps you would like to add your own.

Many believe that high school students don’t learn writing skills effectively. Despite wanting to unleash their creativity, your students often don’t have sufficient tools to do so. If you feel it’s time for that to change, we want to hear what innovations you would bring to American education.

Write to us, and we’ll be glad to share your ideas with our readers. 

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Five must-read mentor texts for teaching persuasive writing.

Are you ready for your students to write persuasive essays with ease? Teaching persuasive writing is such an important skill for elementary students. It can be used in so many different situations, from getting a new toy to convincing your parents to let you stay up late. In order to help your students become better persuasive writers, it is important to expose them to good books that model the techniques of persuasive writing. Let's take a look at 5 must-read books for elementary students who are working on persuasive writing skills. These books will give students the tools they need to master the art of persuasion. Your students will learn how to craft an argument, back up their points with evidence, and appeal to their readers' emotions.

5 must read books for teaching persuasive writing

One Word from Sophia by Jim Averbeck and Yasmeen Ismail

“One Word from Sophia” is a wonderful text to share with students as you are teaching persuasive writing because Sophia is very convincing. She tries to convince her mother, father, Uncle Conrad, and Grand-mama that she should have a giraffe. Sophia presents convincing arguments that are trying to persuade her family without being argumentative.

one word from sophia book and lesson plan for writing

This mentor text gives the opportunity to discuss the difference between persuasive and opinion writing. The major difference between persuasive and opinion writing is that persuasive writing is based on facts, while opinion writing is based on personal beliefs. In persuasive writing, the writer presents evidence to support their argument, while in opinion writing, the writer simply shares their thoughts and feelings. Sharing the story of Sophia is a great way to help students recognize the power of persuasive writing.

Blog quote

Earrings by Judith Viorst

The narrator in “Earrings” considers WHY her parents always say no to getting her ears pierced before she forms her arguments. This is a great way to discuss how persuasive writers should consider both sides of the argument before developing their own persuasive reasons.

student writing in notebook

One way to strengthen a persuasive argument is to anticipate and address potential objections. By addressing objections, the writer can show that they have considered all possible angles and that their argument is well-thought-out.

Earrings book and writing flipbook for forming arguments

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

As you read “The Great Kapok Tree” you can discuss how each animal has a clear reason that the Great Kapok tree should not be cut down. The animals have clear reasons that they give with support and evidence. This can help students realize how they must organize their own ideas so that their point of view is clear and so that their arguments are focused.

Having a clear and focused argument that is persuasive to readers:

  • Helps you anticipate and address objections
  • Makes your argument well-thought-out

The great kapok tree book with writer's notebook for organizing ideas

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus by Mo Willems

The pigeon is quite demanding in “Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” and the way that the author uses capital letters give the reader the impression that the pigeon is even screaming at times. This can help students realize that the tone of their writing matters! When writing persuasive essays , students must consider the tone and mood that come across in their writing…and try not to be quite as demanding in their reasoning as the pigeon!

don't let the pigeon drive the bus book and writers notebook

When you consider the tone in your persuasive writing:

  • It helps you sound persuasive and in control
  • Shows your readers that you've considered their objections
  • Makes your argument look well-thought-out
  • Comes across as a strong and credible writer

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Hey Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose

“Hey, Little Ant” is a great book that shows how to persuade with kindness and compassion while truly trying to consider the other side of the argument and that person or group's feelings. It is a funny and thought-provoking book that will keep your students thinking about their own persuasive arguments.

Hey little ant book and persuasive writing materials

When you're trying to persuade someone, you're trying to convince them that your opinion is the right one. You want them to see things the way that you do, and agree with your point of view. Persuasive writing can be a very powerful tool because it can change people's minds and opinions. When you're able to persuade someone successfully, you know that you've considered each side of the argument and the objections and you've earned their trust as a credible source.

Want more persuasive writing?

writer's notebook with persuasive writing checklist and goal setting

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Persuasive Writing Unit | Graphic Organizers, Rubric, Lessons, Anchor Charts

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33 Mentor Texts for Opinion Writing

Show kids how powerful sharing ideas in writing can be.

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In today’s world, we want our teaching to inspire students to be forward thinkers and changemakers. Teaching them how to share their opinions in writing is a key ingredient. Let’s get kids making signs and writing letters, lists, reviews, essays, blog posts, and speeches! Check out some of our favorite opinion-writing mentor texts to bring this important genre to life for kids. We’ve got plenty of picture books for the younger set, and titles to help older kids make the leap to persuasive writing backed by researched facts.

(Just a heads up, WeAreTeachers may collect a share of sales from the links on this page. We only recommend items our team loves!)

1. We Disagree by Bethanie Deeney Murguia

Book cover for We Disagree as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

A mouse and a squirrel think differently about, well, everything. Can they ever be friends? This is such a cute title for introducing kids to what it means to share an opinion, and it could lead to plenty of writing prompts to open an opinion-writing unit.

Buy it: We Disagree on Amazon

2. I Love Insects by Lizzy Rockwell

Book cover for I Love Insects as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

This early reader should definitely be in your primary classroom collection of opinion-writing mentor texts to help introduce the genre. Do you love insects? Two kids give competing reasons for why and why not. Read it aloud and head straight into shared writing of a list of pros and cons.

Buy it: I Love Insects on Amazon

3. Usha and the Big Digger by Amitha Jagannath Knight

Book cover for Usha and the Big Digger as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

To introduce kids to opinion writing, you need opinion-writing mentor texts to teach them what “opinions” are—and Usha, Aarti, and Gloria have them in this book! They each see something different when they look at the stars. This book could lead to a great introduction activity in which students try to convince each other that they see the Big Dipper, a “Big Digger,” a “Big Kite …” or something else. (Hint: It’s all in your perspective!)

Buy it: Usha and the Big Digger on Amazon

 4. Don’t Feed the Bear by Kathleen Doherty

Book cover for Don't Feed the Bear as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

When a park ranger puts up a “Don’t Feed the Bear” reminder, he has no idea about the persuasive sign-writing battle he’ll set in motion. (Strategic language includes “Please feed the ranger rotten eggs and slimy spinach.”) Share this hilarious title to introduce students to using signs to influence others’ thinking.

Buy it: Don’t Feed the Bear on Amazon

5. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

Book cover for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

Let a favorite character guide young students in the art of persuasion. The bus driver does not want Pigeon in the driver’s seat, but the well-known bird builds an emotional and unrelenting case.

Buy it: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! on Amazon

6. Our Favorite Day of the Year by A.E. Ali

Book cover for Our Favorite Day of the Year

We adore sharing this book with young students to open inclusive conversations about favorite holidays and traditions. Each student in Musa’s class shares about their favorite day of the year, from Eid Al-Fitr to Pi Day. Use this book to prompt kids to write their own opinion pieces about their favorite days, and to model how reasoning, information, and anecdotes can support one’s opinion.

Buy it: Our Favorite Day of the Year on Amazon

7. Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea by Meena Harris

Book cover for Kamala and Maya's Big Idea

This true story from Kamala Harris’ childhood details how she and her sister wrote letters to their landlord until he agreed to let them build a playground in their apartment complex courtyard. Get kids excited about how their opinion writing could create real change!

Buy it: Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea on Amazon

8. If I Were President by Trygve Skaug

Book cover for If I Were President

A young boy talks at length about what he’d do differently if he ran the country. Maybe cars could run on legs instead of gasoline, and “playing” should be a subject taught in school. Share this with kids who need more ideas for opinion-writing topics!

Buy it: If I Were President on Amazon

9. The Little Book of Little Activists by Penguin Young Readers

Book cover for The Little Book of Little Activists as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

Introduce young students to the idea of activism and its connection to opinion writing. This inspiring photo essay includes examples of kids’ opinions about real-life causes and many written signs.

Buy it: The Little Book of Activists on Amazon

10. The Big Bed by Bunmi Laditan

Book cover for The Big Bed as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

This protagonist is a toddler on a mission—a mission to kick her dad out of her parents’ bed so she can sleep with her mom. Use this little girl’s precocious modeling to show students how to polish their own opinion writing by adding visual supports.

Buy it: The Big Bed on Amazon

11. The Perfect Pet by Margie Palatini

Book cover for The Perfect Pet as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

Elizabeth crafts a plan to convince her parents to let her have a pet, with unexpected—but pleasing—results. This is our favorite opinion-writing mentor text for introducing kids to win-win solutions and encouraging them to suggest them in their own opinion writing.

Buy it: The Perfect Pet on Amazon

12. & 13. Can I Be Your Dog? and I Found a Kitty! by Troy Cummings

Book cover for Can I Be Your Dog? as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

First, read a collection of persuasive letters from a lonely dog seeking an owner that’s a twist on kids’ pet requests. Each letter is tailored to a specific audience, with Arfy promising to lick things clean, protect, and deliver endless affection.

In the sequel, Arfy uses his persuasive skills to help someone else, a lovable stray kitten. Notice with students how he once again shapes his reasoning for each recipient—and how he doesn’t give up until he’s successful!

Buy it: Can I Be Your Dog? on Amazon

Buy it: I Found a Kitty! on Amazon

14. True You: A Gender Journey by Gwen Agna and Shelley Rotner

Book cover for True You: A Gender Journey

This delightful and important title stars real kids with a full range of gender identities. Each child introduces themselves in a speech bubble that shares their opinion about gender identity. Use this title to model talking to the reader using strong, direct language.

Buy it: True You: A Gender Journey on Amazon

15. Stella Writes an Opinion by Janiel Wagstaff

Book cover for Stella Writes an Opinion as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

Sometimes you want perfectly straightforward opinion-writing mentor texts that match right up with your teaching goals. Stella thinks second graders should be able to have a morning snack time. She sets out to write about her opinion, state her reasons, and ends with a compelling summation.

Buy it: Stella Writes an Opinion on Amazon

16. I Wanna New Room by Karen Kaufman Orloff

Book cover for I Wanna New Room as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

After his successful angling for a pet in I Wanna Iguana , Alex tries using note-writing to broach his next request: a room of his own, away from his pesky younger brother. The parent-child communication includes plenty of examples of making and responding to counterarguments.

Buy it: I Wanna New Room on Amazon

17. Be Glad Your Dad … Is Not an Octopus! by Matthew Logelin and Sara Jensen

Book cover for Be Glad Your Dad is Not an Octopus! as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

This author’s opinion is that you should appreciate your dad for who he is. He makes his case with plenty of arguments grounded in facts—facts that show that if your dad were an animal, he could be even more gross, embarrassing, or annoying!

Buy it: Be Glad Your Dad … Is Not an Octopus! on Amazon

18. Earrings! by Judith Viorst

Book cover for Earrings! as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

A young girl desperately wants her ears pierced, but her parents respond to her begging with a firm no. Ask students to evaluate the merits of her various arguments. Which are strong? Which are just whiny?

Buy it: Earrings! on Amazon

19. Pick a Picture, Write an Opinion! by Kristen McCurry

Book cover for Pick a Picture, Write an Opinion! as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

If you’re looking for opinion-writing mentor texts that lay it all out there explicitly, you’ll appreciate this resource. Engaging, diverse photos and topics, a kid-friendly tone, and explicit advice make this a helpful primer to accompany more conventional mentor texts.

Buy it: Pick a Picture, Write an Opinion! on Amazon

20. I Hate My Cats (A Love Story) by Davide Cali

Book cover for I Hate My Cats (A Love Story) as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

This narrator has plenty of reasons to dislike his self-centered cats, which he outlines in specific detail. Use this title as an example of a multi-pronged argument. (Plus, show that sometimes, opinion writing actually leads us to change our own minds. By the end, the owner realizes he actually loves his pets, quirks and all.)

Buy it: I Hate My Cats (A Love Story) on Amazon

21. I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can’t by Diane Dillon

Book cover for I Can Be Anything! Don't Tell Me I Can't as an example of mentor texts for opinion writing

Zoe makes big plans for her future, from being an archaeologist to a veterinarian. She quiets self-doubt with confident arguments. Aside from sharing this title’s lovely, affirming message, use it to teach kids to anticipate tough questions and head them off convincingly in their opinion writing.

Buy it: I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can’t on Amazon

22. Rise Up and Write It by Nandini Ahuja

Book cover for Rise Up and Write It

Farah Patel works to convince her local government to improve a vacant lot to benefit her community. Great realistic examples of using letters and signs to inspire change!

Buy it: Rise Up and Write It on Amazon

23. The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

Book cover for The Day the Crayons Quit as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

These disgruntled but endearing crayons have opinions, and they aren’t shy about making them known in this read-aloud favorite. Check out this free downloadable educator guide from the publisher for persuasive letter-writing curriculum connections.

Buy it: The Day the Crayons Quit on Amazon

24. Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating

Book cover for Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

The best opinion writing springs from genuine conviction. Eugenie Clark believed sharks were fascinating and  that women could be accomplished scientists who study them. Use this title to help students generate their own passion-fueled topics about which to write.

Buy it: Shark Lady on Amazon

25. What Can a Citizen Do? by Dave Eggers

Book cover for What Can a Citizen Do?

Share this title for its inspiring message about the power of one citizen to evoke positive change through spoken words, writing, and action. Also consider it as an example of how words and art interact in opinion writing; the illustrations and text work together here to advance the book’s message.

Buy it: What Can a Citizen Do? on Amazon?

26. Dr. Coo and the Pigeon Protest by Sarah Hampson

Book cover for Dr. Coo and the Pigeon Protest

Dr. Archibald Coo believes that pigeons don’t deserve their reputation as avian pests. He outlines a plan to change the minds of his city neighbors. Part of his approach is to send a persuasive letter to the mayor, suggesting creative, mutually beneficial agreements—a great example for student writers aiming to change the minds of authority figures.

Buy it: Dr. Coo and the Pigeon Protest on Amazon

27. The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

Book cover for The Great Kapok Tree

The animals in this classic read-aloud give a range of reasons their home shouldn’t be chopped down. Use them as examples of how to vary sentence structures and formats when listing arguments and how to use specific details to strengthen reasoning.

Buy it: The Great Kapok Tree on Amazon

28. Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson

Book cover for Let the Children March

This fictional account of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade, told from the point of view of a young participant, is a classroom must-read. It exemplifies how children’s actions can make a difference in an adult world and how powerful language strengthens a written message.

Buy it: Let the Children March on Amazon

29. No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History edited by Lindsay H. Metcalf, Keila V. Dawson, and Jeanette Bradley

Book cover for No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History

This powerful title introduces inspiring and diverse young activists’ causes using original poems by notable authors. Show kids that impactful opinion writing can take many forms.

Buy it: No Voice Too Small on Amazon

30. The Week Junior magazine “Big Debate” feature

Covers for The Week Junior magazine

The Week Junior is one of our absolute favorite magazines for the classroom , and its “Big Debate” section is a main reason for that. Each issue examines both sides of an interesting topic, from whether we should eat Maine lobster, to if space exploration is worth the huge cost, to whether or not kids’ screen time should be restricted. Have kids study examples to get tips for their own opinion writing, and maybe even create their own “Big Debate.”

Buy it: The Week Junior

31. Planet Ocean: Why We All Need a Healthy Ocean by Patricia Newman

Book cover for Planet Ocean: Why We All Need a Healthy Ocean as an example of opinion writing mentor texts

This is a fantastic resource for upper elementary and middle school classrooms moving from opinion writing to research-based persuasive writing. This mind-boggling look at the impact of trash on our oceans gives kids so many models for sharing one’s opinions, experiences, and knowledge to spark change. Embedded QR codes take readers straight to awesome examples of persuasive speeches and other cool resources that support the author’s message.

Buy it: Planet Ocean: Why We All Need a Healthy Ocean on Amazon

32. We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell

Book cover for We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know

A classroom prepares to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day with research projects that convey a clear message: Native Nations are still here! Besides being critical content for kids, this is a great example of how to use researched facts to support one’s opinion.

Buy it: We Are Still Here! on Amazon

33. Marley Dias Gets It Done and So Can You! by Marley Dias

Book cover for Marley Dias Gets It Done and So Can You!

Every middle school student should meet Marley Dias through this powerful account of her #1000blackgirlbooks campaign. It boasts plenty of practical advice for young activists. Pull text excerpts for mini-lessons about tailoring opinion writing to your audience. Marley writes straight to her peers.

Buy it: Marley Dias Gets It Done and So Can You! on Amazon

Excited to share these opinion-writing mentor texts? Also check out our favorite mentor texts for procedural and narrative writing.

Want more book lists and classroom ideas be sure to  subscribe to our newsletters, you might also like.

Examples of mentor texts including My Papi has a Motorcycle and Soul Food Sunday

32 Best Mentor Texts for Narrative Writing in Elementary School

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23 Persuasive writing Topics for High School students

Persuasive Writing Topics,essay,essay writing,prompts | persuasive writing prompts | 23 Persuasive writing Topics for High School students | literacyideas.com

Persuasive Writing Topics for High School Students

Writing a persuasive essay can be difficult for teachers and students if you don’t have a great idea to help get those creative juices flowing.  These prompts cover a range of issues and topics that are pertinent to middle school and high school students and can be easily adapted to work with a topic you have been teaching in your own class.

Students really enjoy the opportunity to try and change the world in which they live, and hopefully, these prompts might be a great starting point.

Remember that if you are looking for more excellent free resources and structured guides to teaching all aspects of English, especially writing be sure to visit literacyideas.com and check our vast collection of prompts here.

COMPLETE YEAR LONG INFERENCE WRITING RESOURCE

Persuasive Writing Topics,essay,essay writing,prompts | Visual Writing Prompts | 23 Persuasive writing Topics for High School students | literacyideas.com

Tap into the power of imagery in your classroom to get your students to master INFERENCE as AUTHORS and CRITICAL THINKERS .

This YEAR LONG 500+ PAGE unit is packed with robust opportunities for your students to develop the critical skill of inference through fun imagery and powerful thinking tools, and graphic organizers.

 TOP PERSUASIVE WRITING TOPICS

  • Some parents give children a weekly or monthly allowance regardless of their behavior because they believe an allowance teaches children to be financially responsible. Other parents only give children an allowance as a reward for completing chores or when they have behaved properly. Explain what you think parents should do and why.
  • Many schools now require teenagers to spend a certain number of hours each term doing volunteer work or community service. Some people believe this is an excellent idea as it promotes good citizenship and cultivates compassion. Others feel that forced volunteerism is not volunteering at all. How do you feel about this issue? Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.
  • Some parts of the world allow people to get a driver’s license at age sixteen. Many feel this age is much too young for the responsibility that comes with driving a car and that teenagers should not be allowed to drive until the age of 18. In your opinion, at what age should people be allowed to drive, and why?
  • What is your all-time favorite book or movie and why? Write an essay persuading readers to watch this film or read this book.
  • Have you ever made a life changing action that has had a positive effect on you or the lives of others? Write an essay that convinces readers to make a change for the better.
  • You have been asked to write a letter that would convince a organizers of a major event to be hosted in your hometown. Write an essay that convinces these delegates that your town would be great host.
  • Top professional athletes often have salaries and bonuses in the tens of millions of dollars. Do you think these athletes deserve this type of income? Why or why not? Explain your position and use specific reasons and examples.
  • Humans have always wondered about the possibility of life on other planets in the universe. Do you believe extraterrestrial life exists? Write an essay persuading others to share your point of view .
  • If someone discovered the ‘Elixir of life’ that would enable us to live forever, would it be a blessing or a curse? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
  • If you have you ever traveled to a place that you found very meaningful and rewarding? Write an essay that persuades others to visit this important place.
  • Nearly all private schools require students to wear uniforms. Should public school students wear uniforms too? Argue for or against school uniforms for public school students. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.
  • You are to select one item from the twenty-first century to place in a time capsule for future generations, what would you choose? Use specific reasons and examples to support your choice, explaining both the item’s significance and the reasons why it embodies the culture of the early twenty-first century.
  • What would improve your town or city? Write an essay convincing officials to make a change that would improve your neighborhood.
  • Some studies have shown students often perform better on exams if music is played softly in the background. However, some students may find the music distracting. Should schools play classical music during exams and/or allow students to listen to headphones whilst working? Take a position and explain your answer.
  • Should parents be a child’s disciplinarian, or their best friend?
  • Take a position and explain your answer using specific reasons and examples.
  • Millions of people visit zoos around the world. But some people believe that zoos are inhumane and that animals should not be kept in captivity. Do you agree? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.
  • In most countries people pay taxes based upon how much they earn: the higher their income, the higher the percentage of that income they must pay in taxes. Many people argue that a flat tax, in which everyone pays the same rate regardless of income, would be a more equitable and desirable tax system. Which of these two tax systems do you think is best, and why? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
  • Is it wise to devote time and money to building a space station on the moon or Mars? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
  • An ancient Greek proverb states, “All things good to know are difficult to learn.” Do you agree? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to explain your answer.
  • Imagine that you know someone who is unfamiliar with computers and has never been on the Internet. Write an essay convincing this relative to get a computer and get online.
  • Imagine that you have made it to the final round of interviews for your dream job. Convince your prospective employers that you are the one who most deserves the position.
  • Is there something that you believe is truly worth fighting for? Write an essay persuading others that this cause is worth a fight.

If you have any other great ideas for persuasive prompts please post them in the comments section below. 

A COMPLETE TEACHING UNIT ON PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILLS

Persuasive Writing Topics,essay,essay writing,prompts | opinion writing unit 1 | 23 Persuasive writing Topics for High School students | literacyideas.com

Teach your students to produce writing that  PERSUADES  and  INFLUENCES  thinking with this  HUGE  writing guide bundle covering: ⭐ Persuasive Texts / Essays ⭐ Expository Essays⭐ Argumentative Essays⭐ Discussions.

A complete 140 PAGE unit of work on persuasive texts for teachers and students. No preparation is required.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Picture Book Mentor Texts for Persuasive Writing

By lindsay barrett.

Excellent mentor texts are a huge asset for teaching any type of writing, but they are especially useful for less familiar genres. Persuasive writing is an increasingly common requirement for the primary grades, but most students don’t have as much experience with it as narrative writing or traditional nonfiction. If your class is stuck on the same topics or formats — how many letters have you read angling for a later bedtime or a family pet? — or if they could use a wider repertoire of stylistic moves to be more convincing, check out these useful titles:

Don’t Feed the Bear

Don’t Feed the Bear

by Kathleen Doherty, illustrated by Chip Wass

What is more persuasive than a perfectly worded sign? When the park ranger posts a “Don’t Feed The Bear” sign, Bear fights back with his own sign, inciting a hilarious “war with words.” If your persuasive writing unit includes work on crafting signs to help solve problems or communicate opinions, this fun title can give students “s’more” examples. (Grades K – 1)

Rufus Goes to School

Rufus Goes to School

by Kim T. Griswell, illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev

Rufus wants nothing more than to be allowed to go to school, but the principal is sure he will track mud in the halls and start food fights. He’s a determined little piglet, though, and he floods the principal with arguments about how prepared he is and how well behaved he’ll be. Use this story to show how giving multiple reasons strengthens an argument and ups one’s chances of landing on the winning one. (Grades K – 2)

Can I Be Your Dog?

Can I Be Your Dog?

by Troy Cummings

The persuasive letter is perhaps the most classic form of opinion writing. In this title, Arfy the dog has one mission: to convince someone to adopt him. He works his way down Butternut Street delivering written requests tailored to each occupant. He offers to keep the floor of the butcher shop clean, compliments the firehouse on its shiny hydrant, and says he will protect the junkyard from scavengers. Use this title to introduce the basic format and tone of a persuasive letter and show students how to personalize a letter to fit its recipient. (Grades K – 2)

Be Glad Your Dad Is Not an Octopus

Be Glad Your Dad Is Not an Octopus

by Matt Logelin and Sara Jensen, illustrated by Jared Chapman

This text makes a strong case for why you should appreciate your dad, flaws and all, by naming plenty of less desirable alternatives. If your dad were a bee, his buzzing would get really annoying, and if he were a dung beetle, well, he would pile poop in your room, which would be disgusting. Use this fun text to show students how to write fact-based supporting arguments in creative ways and to demonstrate the power of staying focused on your intended purpose. (Grades K – 3)

Don’t Blink!

Don’t Blink!

by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by David Roberts

A lovable, wide-eyed owl tries to convince readers that the trick to prolonging storytime (thereby avoiding bedtime) is simply not to blink. Of course, the narrator’s eyelids begin to droop more and more as the book progresses. Use this title when students are ready to try out some different craft moves. Possible mini-lessons include: using varied sentence lengths (especially short, impactful ones), using bold text and word art for emphasis, and using a range of punctuation to engage readers and strengthen one’s message. (Grades K – 3)

The Big Bed

The Big Bed

by Bunmi Laditan

In this hilarious plea to her father, a toddler outlines myriad reasons why she should be allowed to sleep in the big bed with her mom and why her dad should move to a cot (or a “big-boy bassinet,” as she tries to sell it). Despite the absurdity of her arguments, she’s exceedingly courteous, making this title a great one for studying how being polite can improve one’s persuasive efforts. She also couples her verbal arguments with engaging charts and diagrams. Once you and your class all stop laughing, use these examples to show students how to bolster their own writing with visual supports. (Grades K – 3)

Escargot

by Dashka Slater, illustrated by Sydney Hanson

Escargot is a “beautiful” — and not very humble — French snail that is desperate to be someone’s favorite animal. She unabashedly appeals to readers’ emotions, and with her frequent exclamations of “ Au contraire !” speaks directly to their presumed concerns. (You might think a snail’s trails are slimy, but she’d prefer to call them, “shimmery trails of … shimmery stuff.”) Use this story to show students how writers can anticipate and debunk a reader’s counterarguments. (Grades K – 3)

The Day the Crayons Quit

The Day the Crayons Quit

by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

The best persuasive writers effectively convey their passion for a topic. There are few narrators in kid lit more convincing than overworked Red Crayon, who needs a break from his myriad holiday coloring tasks, bored Black Crayon, who wants to diversify his responsibilities beyond outlining, or modest Peach Crayon, with his strong stance against peeling paper wrapping off crayons. When your students’ persuasive writing needs an injection of strong emotion, let the crayons in Duncan’s crayon box be their muses. (Check out this educator’s guide for more ways to use this title in the classroom.) (Grades K – 4)

Dr. Coo and the Pigeon Protest

Dr. Coo and the Pigeon Protest

by Sarah Hampson, illustrated by Kass Reich

One goal of persuasive writers is to improve readers’ opinions of a group or concept. In this example, Dr. Coo makes it his personal mission to change humans’ attitudes towards him and his fellow pigeons. The story helps build general background knowledge about strategies for furthering a collective cause, but the real mentor text potential is in Dr. Coo’s letter to the mayor. In it he outlines a proposed agreement between humans and pigeons, a perfect introduction when asking students to suggest their own win-win solutions. (Grades 1 – 4)

Give Bees a Chance

Give Bees a Chance

by Bethany Barton

Addressing a common phobia, this text outlines why bees are worthy of our appreciation instead of anxiety. It’s packed with facts, showing students how to translate research findings into persuasive arguments in an engaging way. The text is written as a conversation between an expert and a skeptic, so it’s a natural fit for showing students how to write as if they are speaking to readers. The comic book-style charts and diagrams also give students ideas for alternative formats for presenting information. (Grades 1 – 4)

Olivia’s Birds: Saving the Gulf

Olivia’s Birds: Saving the Gulf

by Olivia Bouler

Of course, the primary purpose of teaching students about opinion writing isn’t just to help them get what they want, but to highlight writing as a vehicle for activism. Eleven-year-old Olivia Bouler is an inspiring example with this book she created to raise money for the Audubon Society. This title is another great choice for showing students how to employ an engaging and personal tone, present fact-based arguments, and use visuals to support their agendas. (Grades 1 – 4)

Did we persuade you to expand your mentor text collection? Which other titles do you find helpful when teaching persuasive writing? Share your advice in the comments section below.

For more lesson plans, book recommendations, and reading tips for your classroom or library, check out our  Teach Brightly page !

  • pinterest-p

Modelling the text (Deconstruction)

Select persuasive texts to use as mentor or model texts or create exemplar texts to share with the students. When working with each text, discuss with students the purpose and intended audience of the text.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Focus on the structure of the argument

Share the argument with students and have labels ready for each of the sections of the text. Examine each section of the argument and identify the purpose of each section.

Provide students with a copy of the persuasive text, which has some key words removed. You might choose to delete a certain group of words, for example, technical vocabulary, connectives or verb groups. Students work with a partner to complete a cloze activity.

Cut up the persuasive texts into paragraphs. Ask students to sequence paragraphs in the correct order, explaining their choices and the function of each paragraph.

Select one paragraph for closer reading. Introduce TEEL structure as a way of organising paragraphs:

  • T = topic sentence
  • E = elaborate or provide more explanation of idea in topic sentence
  • E= give some evidence to support the topic presented in the paragraph
  • L= linking sentence making connections between paragraph and main argument of the text.

Use highlighter pens to highlight each part of TEEL paragraph.

Unjumble sentences from one paragraph and ask students reorder these to fit TEEL structure.

Focus on the language features of the argument

  • Consider the connectives at the start of some of the paragraphs which help to make the text cohesive and provide links between the paragraphs in the text - furthermore, in addition. Discuss their function in the text. Explain to the students that these connectives signal to the reader that a new argument is being introduced in the text. Record these connectives on a display chart and add to these when reading other persuasive texts. The other connective used here is lastly – here, the connective is used to sequence the arguments in the text. Other connectives used to sequence ideas include: firstly, in conclusion, to sum up.
  • Look at how modality can be expressed through the verb group, for example, must work closely with… should respect… High modality is used to convince someone to do or believe something. Different levels of modality – low, medium or high – can be used in the verb group “depending on how we want to relate to the reader and how we want to portray our own level of commitment to an action or idea” (Derewianka, 2011, p. 66). Ask students to sort modal verbs into groups or along a continuum of modality from low to high – may, might, could, would, will, should, can, need to, must, ought to, shall, has to.
  • Present students with an array of persuasive texts that have been read throughout the unit. Using three charts headed ‘Always’, ‘Usually’ and ‘Never’ discuss and list structural and linguistic features that are common and different across the texts, for example, a good persuasive text always provides evidence for arguments.
  • Students help to devise a checklist to act as success criteria for an argument text, which can be used by individuals for self-assessment or by partners for partner feedback when writing in later stages.

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by Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.  

A Plethora Of Writing Examples For Middle School (& High School)

October 14, 2014 in  Pedagogy

Middle School Writing Samples

When I started my first job as a professional newspaper reporter (This job also served as an internship during my junior year in college — I just didn’t leave for about 6 years.), I quickly realized that all my experience, and all my years of journalism education had not been enough to help me write stories about drug busts, fatal car accidents and tornadoes. All the theoretical work I’d done, and all of the nifty little scholastic and collegiate stories I had done, did not prepare me for real world writing.

At that point, I had to find a solution quickly. After all, I had a deadline to meet, and it was only a few hours away.

One of my colleagues, who also served as a mentor, had the solution. She introduced me to the newspaper’s “morgue.” This was a room filled with filing cabinets in which we kept old — dead — stories arranged by reporter. Whenever I wasn’t’ sure how to write a story, all I had to do was check the morgue for similar stories. If I needed to write a story about a local drug bust, for example, I’d find another story on a similar incident, study its structure, and mentally create a formula in which to plugin the information I’d gathered.

Once I’d gained more experience, and had internalized the formula for that particular type of story, I felt free to branch out as the situation — and my training — warranted.

I do the same thing when I want to write a type of letter, brochure, or report that I’ve never written before.

This is what writing looks like in the real world.

Of course, if you’re a new teacher like me, there is one problem with providing mentor texts to my students: I have a dearth of middle school level writing sitting around in my file cabinets.

Fortunately, the Internet is full of sources, so I scoured the bowels of Google to find examples. I know how busy you are, so I’m sharing.

Expository writing examples for middle school

Below are several sources of expository writing samples for middle school students.

  • The Write Source Expository Writing Samples
  • Holt, Rinehart, Winston Expository Essay Models

Finally, here is an article in the New York Times that will help you teach your students  real-world expository writing skills .

Descriptive writing examples for middle school

  • Descriptive Writing Samples from Novels
  • Milwaukee Public Schools Descriptive Essay Samples (p. 137)
  • Holt, Rinehart, Winston Descriptive Essay Models

Narrative writing examples for middle school

  • Writing Samples by Steve Peha (PDF)
  • The Write Source Narrative Writing Samples
  • Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Ideas and Organization)
  • Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Sentence Fluency and Conventions)
  • Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Voice and Word Choice)
  • Oregon Department of Education High School Scored Narrative and Argumentative Writing Samples
  • Holt, Rinehart, Winston Narrative Essay Models

Argumentative/persuasive writing examples for middle school

  • The Write Source Persuasive Writing Samples
  • Holt, Rinehart, Winston Persuasive Essay Models

Reflective writing examples for middle school

  • Reflective essay examples from Lake Washington Girls Middle School

If you know of any other online writing example sources, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

Related topics: Argumentative Writing , Informative Writing , Mentor Texts , Narrative Writing

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About the author 

Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.

I am a secondary English Language Arts teacher, a University of Oklahoma student working on my doctorate in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum with an concentration in English Education and co-Editor of the Oklahoma English Journal. I am constantly seeking ways to amplify students' voices and choices.

This is very, very helpful. Thank you for sharing!

As a new middle school teacher (coming from elementary) this was very helpful and encouraging.

Thank you very much for letting me know. I’m glad that I was able to help you!

Thank you! I’m glad I can help.

Your welcome

This is super helpful. Thank you!

These links are a fantastic help. Thank you!

This helped me BUNCHES! Thanks so much!

thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD

These links are now dead 🙁

Thank you for notifying me! I have updated the post to include new (live!) links. Some of them are geared towards high school, but I think we can still use them as exemplars of what we want our students to aim for.

Comments are closed.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Note: This article doesn’t cover how to teach using mentor texts. Read how to use mentor texts here .

Help make this article a more powerful resource for teachers by sharing your favorite mentor texts in the comments at the end.

Table of Contents:

Personal Narrative Memoir Fiction Informative Literary Analysis Argumentative Speech

Personal Narrative

Eleven   by Sandra Cisneros Best for 6th Grade

It’s Rachel’s eleventh birthday but she doesn’t feel eleven. On this day she feels more like one. Her insensitive teacher wants to find the owner of a red sweater that’s been sitting in the coatroom for a very, very long time. No one in Rachel’s class wants to claim it. When Rachel is accused she doesn’t speak up for herself. The following writing skills are beautifully done in this short story:

  • Descriptive Language
  • Figurative Language
  • Inner Thinking

Mentor Text Mini Lessons

Everything Will be Okay   by James Howe Appropriate for Grades 6-8 (very sad though)

James finds a sick kitten in the woods and tells the kitten everything will be okay. He takes it home hoping his his family will help. His mother says, “we’ll see…”. His brother Paul, who works for Dr. Milk, comes home and knows what to do. They drive the sickly kitten over to the vet’s office and the scenes that follow are heart wrenching. This story flows back and forth between the events of this day and memories involving James’s family. These components of narrative writing stand out most in the story:

  • Building Tension
  • Character Development
  • Past and Present Transitions

First French Kiss by Adam Bagdasarian Best for 8th Grade

Will is in sixth grade and invited to Maggie’s party. He and Maggie have been exchanging notes in class. She confessed she liked him better than two other boys. Will gets ready for the party and has high hopes for the night. He and Maggie slow dance and afterward Will gets pressure from his friends to french kiss Maggie. When I read this story out loud to my students they are anything but disengaged. This story is related in so many ways. The following writing skills could easily be taught using this mentor text:

Out of Bounds by Amanda Werner Appropriate for Grades 6-8

My husband and I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for five years and bought season ski passes every year we were there. We spent most weekends in the Wasatch mountains skiing the greatest snow on Earth. As fantastic as this sounds, things went very wrong one day. Erik, my husband wanted to ski out of bounds. We’d done so before and nothing had gone wrong but every time we did it I struggled with a decision, follow my husband out of bounds or stick to the groomers. On this day, I chose to follow and things went seriously wrong. The following writing skills could be taught using this short story:

What’s the difference between memoir and personal narrative? Memoirs are usually centered on a time period in a person’s life, or a theme, whereas personal narratives are about one important event. The memoirs below are powerful stories about facing both small issues and huge. Your students will find connections and ideas from reading these:

Fish Cheeks   by Amy Tan Best for 8th Grade

Amy Tan is in love at the age of 14 with a boy named Robert. He doesn’t know it. To her horror, his family is invited over to dinner for Thanksgiving. Amy is mortified by her family and their traditional Chinese ways. This story is so short but is packed with wonderful writing lessons about the following topics:

  • Setting Description
  • Reflective Ending

The Jacket by Gary Soto Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Gary needs a new coat. He describes a super cool biker jacket to his mom and is excited by the potential this new piece of clothing could have on his identity. The next day he finds a guacamole colored, too large coat hanging from is bedpost. His mom says it’s for him. He wears the ugly thing for years and describes in sad detail the negative impact it had on his life and his eventual acceptance of the thing and his situation.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie Best for 8th Grade

Alexie describes his love of reading from the age of three to adulthood. He knows this love of reading saved him from the poverty and struggles of life on an Indian Reservation. But he doesn’t just want to save his own life, he wants to save others’ lives too, through books and writing.

Two Kinds by Amy Tan Best for 8th Grade

Jing-mei’s mom has big plans for her daughter. She wants her daughter to be a prodigy. But as time goes on and Jing-mei fails her mother’s expectations over and over, Jing-mei begins to resent her mother and fail on purpose. She and her mother eventually face off and Jing-mei wins. Her mother backs off, but eventually Jing-mei regrets what she did and the things she said to her mother that day.

  • Transitions

I believe that most teachers neglect teaching fiction writing because it is a beast! Fiction includes many, many genres and trying to teach how to write all those genres seems daunting. It is daunting! Here’s what I suggest…let students choose the genre and teach core writing skills that apply to all of them. Those core skills might be: plot, character development, setting, tone, mood, point of view, description, dialogue, theme, figurative language, transitions, organization and the writing process.

But what about mentor texts? You can do one of two things: use short excerpts from your favorite fictional books or use short stories. Below are some of my favorite fictional short stories. I think most English teachers use these stories to teach reading analysis, but fictional writing skills can be taught with these stories too!

persuasive essay mentor text high school

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Margot is from planet Earth and just moved to Venus. Most children in her class have never seen the sun, because on Venus it rains for seven years straight. On the day that the rain is finally supposed to stop the kids in Margot’s class make a horrendously cruel decision. The following fictional writing skills are very obvious in this classic sci-fi story:

Thank You Ma’am by Langston Hughes Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Mrs. Jones is walking through the street at night when suddenly a young boy tries to take her purse. She is a strong women and grabs a hold of the boy and doesn’t let go. Instead she brings him to her house, feeds him and talks to him. She learns his name is Roger and soon they begin to develop an understanding. This very short story is packed with writing lessons, here are some of the more obvious ones:

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu Best for 8th Grade (has mature content)

Jack or “Kan-kan”, as his mother likes to call him, has a magical, paper lion named Laohu. Jack’s mother made it for him. She has an incredible talent for making origami creatures come to life. Jack loves all his “pets”, but when another boy comes over with his Star Wars toys, Jack realizes he is different…and even more so…his mother is different. He begins to keep his distance from his mother and wants her to be more American by learning English. Jack stops speaking Chinese with her and as time goes on he discovers the story behind his mother’s past. This story is worth a read by you and your students! Here are some writing skills you could teach using it:

  • Dialogue & Inner Thinking
  • Integrating Historical Time Periods & Events into Stories
  • Formats/Letters as Part of Stories

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury Appropriate for Grades 6-8

George and Lydia Hadley just purchased the HappyLife Home. This house does absolutely everything you can think of for them and their two children. It even has a playroom that can turn into the African savannah for their children’s entertainment. Lack of discipline and too much reliance on technology leads to a treacherous end. There are so many awesome writing techniques used in this story:

  • Ending with a Twist

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Appropriate for 8th Grade

Members of a small village gather for many events throughout the year, square dances, teen club, the Halloween fair and other civic activities. And now all the members of this small town, men, women and children gather for the annual lottery. This dark story has many writing techniques that students can emulate in their own fictional stories:

  • Foreshadowing

Informative

It is fairly easy to find information mentor texts, they are all over the internet in the form of blog posts and news articles. Tween Tribune and Dogo News are my favorite free websites for informational writing mentor texts. They always have articles that interest students. Kelly Gallagher also has a comprehensive list of both information and argumentative articles all formatted to use in your classroom: Articles of the Week . Gallagher uses these articles in his high School English classes, so they are more advanced, however, access to all of these articles in one place can be super helpful for an 8th grade teacher like myself and maybe you too.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Teens and adults say they feel tethered to their phones from Tween Tribune Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Parents are depicted as a bit hypocritical in this article (students will love it). They say they want their children to use their devices less. Yet, parents seem to be on their devices just as much, if not more than their children!

  • Citing Studies
  • Quoting Sources

How Online Gaming Platform Roblox is Helping Teenagers Become Millionaires  from Dogo News Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Kids can become developers for games like Roblox. The company pays 30% in royalties and this has made some millionaires! Students will love reading about how to make money through what they are most passionate about…video games!

  • Citing Data
  • Organization

Homework and Tests Stressing You Out? Consider Moving to Sweden  from Dogo News Appropriate for Grades 6-8

A school in Sweden decided to do an experiment…no homework or tests for a whole month. If stress is reduced in these students’ lives they may never have to do homework again! Other countries are experimenting with this idea too. Students will love learning about the negative impacts of homework in this article. Here are some of the features of this article students could emulate in their own informational writing:

  • Bias (this article is a bit one-sided)
  • Summarizing Studies
  • Embedding Video

Giant boom hopes to corral Pacific Ocean’s plastic trash from Tween Tribune Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Between Hawaii and California there floats a patch of trash twice the size of Texas! It is disgusting. Boyan Slat, a 23 year old, has taken it upon himself to find a solution. This article talks about his invention and how he is working toward a solution to this very large and concerning problem. Here are some writing skills students can glean from reading this informative article:

  • Embedding Quotes from Interviews
  • Providing Differing Viewpoints
  • Providing Statistics
  • Use of Commas to Add Detail

Literary Analysis

Ever wonder why it is so difficult to find mentor texts to teach literary essays? It’s because people don’t write literary essays in the real world! The only time this type of writing is done is in school. This worries me a bit because I believe students should be writing what people in the real world write. Then, I came across this article called, Thinking About Mentor Texts for Literary Analysis , and was convinced that yes we should definitely still teach literary essays. Not because it is what we’ve always done in English classes, our reason should be to help students develop their analysis skills so that they can think critically about world events, business, politics, books and even their own lives! The mentor texts below are about a wide range of topics but can still be used to teach literary essay writing skills.

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Picture Books Tell Children the Harsh Story of Refugee Picture Books by Monica Edingar Appropriate for 8th Grade (advanced writing)

Edingar starts off arguing how important it is that we talk about the experiences of migrants and refugees, especially to our children. She then goes on to beautifully summarize and analyze six children’s books about people from places ranging from Chile to Greece to Mexico. Students could learn these writing techniques from reading all or part of this article:

  • Quoting Individuals
  • Summarizing

YA Thrillers to Give You Chills This Summer   by Elisabeth Egan Appropriate for 8th Grade

Three thriller YA novels are discussed in this well written article. Not only will students learn the writing techniques listed below, they’ll also learn about some high interest YA novels too.

  • Comparing Literature
  • Making Connections
  • Narrative Hook
  • Providing Details in Parentheses

10 Benefits of Reading Everyday  by Lana Winter-Hebert Appropriate for Grades 6-8

This article discusses some excellent reasons why we should be reading everyday. Many important points are brought up such as how reading helps you become a better writer and develop analytical skills! The following writing techniques could be taught using this article:

  • Hooking Reader with Questions about Their Life
  • Providing Photo Credit

Movie theaters fight streaming by assaulting the senses Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Movie theaters are struggling to compete with the streaming television services Netflix and Amazon Prime. So, they are adding many creative features to keep movie goers coming back.  Reclining seats, food service and even augmented reality! There are many things to learn from this article:

  • Using Dashes to Add Extra Detail
  • Word Choice

Argumentative

Finding age appropriate argumentative writing samples that are at the middle school level is tricky. I rely heavily on newspaper editorials. This is real life argumentative writing at its finest. However, newspapers are often written above our students’ reading levels. Because of this fact I read these articles out loud with students first read then I have them reread and annotate. It is more likely students will retain the information and the writing skills you teach when you read it out loud first. Then, on a different day during your argumentative writing unit, analyze parts of the articles pointing out skills you want to teach that day. 

persuasive essay mentor text high school

Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away   by James Doubek Appropriate for Grades 7-8 (article is a bit advanced)

Doubek argues that taking notes by hand is actually better than taking notes on a laptop. When you take notes by hand you synthesize information into memorable chunks because you can’t write absolutely everything down when a teacher is lecturing. When you take notes using a laptop you tend to type word for word what you hear, skipping the important synthesis and thinking process. Not only is this an important article for students to read, you can also teach the below writing skills using the article too.

  • Connecting to Audience in Hook
  • Making Counterarguments
  • Quoting Interviews

The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety by Richard A. Friedman Appropriate for 8th Grade (term sex is used)

Friedman is a psychiatrist and argues that screens are not causing a rise in psychological disorders like anxiety and depression. Studies done about the impact on screens to our mental health only show correlations and not causation. He argues that anxiety and stress are a normal part of everyday life and parents need to stop assuming it is psychological trauma. This article has all sorts of argumentative writing techniques students can learn from:

  • Counterarguments
  • Dashes to Include More Detail

An Open Letter About Female Coaches by Pau Gasol Best for 8th Grade (some locker room talk)

Pau Gasol is an NBA basketball player who has been coached by Becky Hammon, the first and only female to ever coach in the NBA. Paul writes this letter to question societal norms and assumptions about women in positions that are dominated by men. It is an excellent read. Here are some skills you could teach using this article:

  • Setting Sentences off to Emphasize

Is it Actually Smart to Sit Still? by Hannah Amell

Hannah Amell is a 15 year old New York Times Learning Network essay finalist. Find out more about the contests here: Learning Network Contests.  She wrote her editorial arguing against block schedules. She thinks schools need to start incorporating more movement in their classrooms. Here are some writing techniques she used:

  • Connecting with Audience in Hook
  • Incorporating Interviews
  • Sentence Variety
  • Ending with a Question

Thanks to TED Talks (and the transcripts that are provided right beneath them), there are tons and tons of examples of speeches available online for our students. I believe this is why so many teachers are shifting from having students give speeches to having their own TED Talks! If you do this have students watch some talks, read the transcripts and then begin planning their own. Here are my favorite TED Talks to show students:

Overcoming Obstacles  [ Transcript ] by Stephen Claunch Appropriate for All Grades

Stephen Claunch was born with many health issues. But these issues have not stopped him from reaching his goals. Stephen explains that obstacles can be overcome with hard work, not excuses. There are multiple heartwarming stories and lessons students need to learn in this talk!

  • Weaving Multiple Stories Together

How to Start a Movement   [ Transcript ] by Derek Sivers Appropriate for All Grades

This humorous talk analyzes the process of creating a movement. Sivers points out that leaders are important but followers might be more important to making a movement. Here are some speech writing topics you can cover with this talk:

  • Summary of Lessons to End Speech
  • Using Humor
  • Video Analysis in a Speech

8 Secrets to Success [ Transcript ] by Richard St. John Appropriate for Grade 8 (the words damn and assholes are used)

This super concise and funny talk gives students advice for how to be successful in life. Here are some speech writing techniques you can teach with this talk:

  • Acronyms to Teach
  • Listing as a Way to Organize a Speech
  • Slideshow Graphics

How to Tie Your Shoes [ Transcript ] by Terry Moore Appropriate for All Grades

This short talk teaches us that we’ve been tying our shoes wrong! It is eye-opening in the simplest way. Here are a few speech writing techniques you can teach with this talk:

  • Connecting with the Audience
  • Doing a Demonstration During a Speech
  • Using a Quote to End a Speech

Type your favorite mentor texts in the comments below…

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11 Comments

This is soooo helpful! Thank you so much for sharing!

Thanks Lyndsey! I’m so happy that you found this article helpful! I appreciate you taking the time to let me know:)

This post is absolute gold, Amanda! Finding good mentor texts is the biggest time-suck, and this post saves sooo much time. Thank you so much for putting it together!

Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback on this article Jeanne! It means so much to me:)

Thank you! This is so helpful! I just shared this page w/teachers in a Twitter chat about mentor texts. I appreciate it! 🙂

Tara, thanks for taking the time to comment and share:) I appreciate YOU!

Thanks you so much for all of the valuable resources and information! Can you please advise/ explain how you incorporate grammar lessons? Thank you SO much!

Hi Gina, I teach grammar as needed during conferences to students who need specific instruction because of glaring mistakes they are making over and over again. I rarely teach grammar lessons to the whole class because I honestly don’t feel my students benefit from knowing grammar terms. Their writing improves the more they read and write not the more they do grammar exercises. I hope that answers your question:)

I wish there was a section with historical fiction. I find historical fiction very interesting and it’d be very helpful right now for my assignment from class.

Great idea! My favorites are Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and I could go on. Historical Fiction is probably my favorite genre to read. Writing historical fiction brings a whole other challenge! What are your favorite historical fiction books?

The Lorax is great for teaching argument.

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persuasive essay mentor text high school

COMMENTS

  1. Mentor Texts for Teaching Argument Writing

    A Persuasive Text by Tony Stead with Judy Ballester and her fourth-grade class Examines the opposing viewpoints of a fourth-grade class on whether zoos are helpful or harmful to animals; written in persuasive language. Hey, Little Ant by Phillip M. and Hannah Hoose, illustrated by Debbie Tilley

  2. 8 Highly Engaging (and Controversial) Argumentative Mentor Texts for

    Amanda Write Now · 8 Highly Engaging (and Controversial) Argumentative Mentor Texts for Middle and High Schoolers ← Are You Blindly Following Rules? Easy to Plan End of Year Writing Projects Your Students Will Love → This article includes links to 6 mentor texts, a summary, writing skills to teach, discussion questions, and more!

  3. Inform, Inspire, Instruct: Essays as Mentor Texts in High School

    Inform, Inspire, Instruct: Essays as Mentor Texts in High School Author Kimberly Campbell Member Login Print Version Share "We are really quite concerned," stressed the school counselor as she handed me the essay a student of mine had submitted for the state writing test.

  4. Argumentative Writing Unit

    Writing prompts, lesson plans, webinars, mentor texts and a culminating contest, all to inspire your students to tell us what matters to them. Share full article 3

  5. How to Use an Inspiring Persuasive Mentor Text to Teach Persuasive Writing

    A persuasive mentor text can show our students how to write well, not just tell them how to write. Students learn better when they have a model or example to follow. When you use great mentor texts to use in your classroom you are giving your students some of the best authors to emulate.

  6. Using Mentor Texts to Motivate and Support Student Writers

    So if we want students to write a convincing persuasive essay that includes evidence, let's show them examples. If we want them to craft a descriptive story, filled with dialogue and details, we need to show them what this looks like and talk about.

  7. A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing

    If you're a writing teacher in grades 7-12 and you'd like a classroom-ready unit like the one described above, including mini-lessons, sample essays, and a library of high-interest online articles to use for gathering evidence, take a look at my Argumentative Writing unit. Just click on the image below and you'll be taken to a page where you can read more and see a detailed preview of ...

  8. Using Mentor Texts to Learn From the Best and Improve Students' Writing

    Deborah K. Reed, Ph.D Truth be told, there are very few phrases my [ speaking as post co-author Sean] high school teachers used during instruction that I remember to this day. Ironically, if taken at face value, the phrase I do still remember promotes outright thievery.

  9. Opinion/Persuasive

    Opinion/Persuasive Mentor Texts to Teach Writing Styles : Opinion/Persuasive Getting Started Narrative Opinion/Persuasive Descriptive Informative Mentor Text Videos Opinion/Persuasive Literature for Mentor Texts Children's Literature Be Glad Your Dad... (Is Not an Octopus!) by Matthew Logelin; Sara Jensen; Jared Chapman (Illustrator)

  10. Teaching Persuasive Writing with a Mentor Text

    After discussing the book, we were able to come up with three reasons with each reason having two details to support it. This was a great starting point for the students to come up with 3 reasons with supporting details for their own persuasive texts. I refer to this anchor chart often to remind the students that a good persuasive text has a ...

  11. Curating Mentor Texts That Inspire Student Writers

    Literacy Curating Mentor Texts That Inspire Student Writers Mentor texts that reflect the breadth and depth of student experiences not only get students enthusiastic about writing but also help build a sense of belonging at school. By Hoa P. Nguyen December 8, 2021

  12. 6 Powerful Mentor Texts for Secondary ELA

    Specific teaching opportunities for this book as a mentor text might include: Using it to introduce sketchnotes. There's no fear in drawing! Analyzing how a poet can craft a stronger voice by playing with word and line arrangement. Studying the use of dialogue, sentence structure, and parallelism.

  13. 10 Steps to Teach Persuasive Writing

    By the time we're finished, most students understand how to gracefully and effectively add the conclusion sentence to finish the opinion essay. Just like we usually do, once we finish a section, we review that section carefully using handouts, sorts, color coding, games, and reviews. 8. Share an Opinion Essay Example.

  14. 40 Persuasive Writing Examples (Essays, Speeches, and More)

    Nov 29, 2023 The more we read, the better writers we become. Teaching students to write strong persuasive essays should always start with reading some top-notch models. This round-up of persuasive writing examples includes famous speeches, influential ad campaigns, contemporary reviews of famous books, and more.

  15. Teaching Persuasive Writing to Students Effectively

    You can come up with various activities to teach your students persuasive writing, but make sure to have one main goal for each activity. To practice persuasive writing through class activities, your students can: Watch and learn from other writers. Look for relevant sources. Outline their essays.

  16. Five Must-Read Mentor Texts for Teaching Persuasive Writing

    Five Must-Read Mentor Texts for Teaching Persuasive Writing - Two Little Birds Teaching Five Must-Read Mentor Texts for Teaching Persuasive Writing Are you ready for your students to write persuasive essays with ease? Teaching persuasive writing is such an important skill for elementary students.

  17. 33 Best Opinion-Writing Mentor Texts for the Classroom

    3. Usha and the Big Digger by Amitha Jagannath Knight To introduce kids to opinion writing, you need opinion-writing mentor texts to teach them what "opinions" are—and Usha, Aarti, and Gloria have them in this book! They each see something different when they look at the stars.

  18. 23 Persuasive writing Topics for High School students

    Teach your students to produce writing that PERSUADES and INFLUENCES thinking with this HUGE writing guide bundle covering: ⭐ Persuasive Texts / Essays ⭐ Expository Essays⭐ Argumentative Essays⭐ Discussions. A complete 140 PAGE unit of work on persuasive texts for teachers and students. No preparation is required.

  19. Picture Book Mentor Texts for Persuasive Writing

    Excellent mentor texts are a huge asset for teaching any type of writing, but they are especially useful for less familiar genres. Persuasive writing is an increasingly common requirement for the primary grades, but most students don't have as much experience with it as narrative writing or traditional nonfiction.

  20. Modelling the text (Deconstruction)

    Modelling the text (Deconstruction) Select persuasive texts to use as mentor or model texts or create exemplar texts to share with the students. When working with each text, discuss with students the purpose and intended audience of the text. See an example of a simple teacher created persuasive text about orangutans.

  21. 23 Great Persuasive Essay Topics for High School

    You may want to share the following five steps with your class to teach them how to write this style of essay—and then use the 23 persuasive essay topics for high school students listed below to help them get started! 1. Choose a Clear Position. Before you begin writing and researching, choose the position you want to take.

  22. A Plethora Of Writing Examples For Middle School (& High School)

    Below are several sources of expository writing samples for middle school students. The Write Source Expository Writing Samples. Holt, Rinehart, Winston Expository Essay Models. Finally, here is an article in the New York Times that will help you teach your students real-world expository writing skills.

  23. Mentor Texts for Middle School by Genre+Summaries and Skills to Teach

    1.3K Every writing unit should start with mentor texts. Students need many examples of the type of writing we expect them to do. In this article, I've compiled my favorite middle school mentor texts. Each mentor text includes grade levels, a summary of the text and skills you could teach.